This tiny species represents everything I love about miniature orchids. Viewed closely the flowers are amazing in their colors and in their intricacy, in this case a combination of green, yellow and brown, of spots and fringes, and arranged in rather unusual pendant, downward-facing fashion on zig-zag spikes.
The plants are 5-6 cm tall, the flowers slightly less than 2 cm and the spikes, carrying up to 10 flowers are 12 cm in length. The species is from Brazil and belongs to a genus that includes only a few other species, which are very similar to this.
This little orchid belongs to a family known as the Ornithocephalinae, which includes the better known genus, Ornithocephalus. That genus has mostly white and green flowers, and so the flowers of this little species provide a welcome change in color.
March 30, 2011
Chytroglossa aurata
Label:
brazil,
chytroglossa,
chytroglossa aurata,
orchid,
ornithocephalinae
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