SF, Feb 2012, Andy's orchid
Full shade, cold to intermediary temperature, flower in fall
A small sized, epiphytic or terrestrial, warm to cool growing orchid
that comes from the wet montane forests of Venezuela, Colombia and
Ecuador at altitudes of 1600 to 3000 meters with an erect, slender
ramicaul enveloped by 2 to 3 tubular sheaths and a single, apical,
erect, thickly coriaceous, verrucose, purple suffused, narrowly elliptic
to narrowly obovate leaf and blooms in the fall on an erect, densly
pubescent, to 6 to 7" [15 to 17.5 cm] long, successively few flowered
inflorescence with a single central bract and has tubular, imbricating
floral bracts, with a single flower at a time held well above the
leaves. This species has an interesting muscular lip that can be
activated to close in a second after which it takes a half hour to
relax. Studies have been done to see if this mechanism is a means of
trapping insects to achieve pollen transfer.
