Octomeria alpina Barb. Rodr. 1881 Photo courtesy of © Dalton Holland Baptista and © Orchidstudium

Flower with different colored lip Photo by Nancy Anne Rowe

Inflorescence Photo courtesy of Elisabeth Kerschbaum of Austria

Plant and Flowers Photo courtesy of Nancy.

Common Name The Alpine Octomeria

Flower Size 3/4" [1.8 cm]

Found in southeastern and southern Brazil in humid, open, high montane forests at elevations of 1300 to 1600 meters as a small sized, cool growing epiphyte with a stout, stiff stem enveloped by 2 to 3 sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, dark green, faintly keeled, linear, acute leaf that blooms in the fall on an erect, .4" [1 cm] long, single flowered inflorescence arising for several years from the same ramicaul

Part of the O crassifolia alliance with O aetheoantha, O albiflora, O cochlearis, O crassifolia, O decepiens, O densiflora,O ementosa, O exchlorophyllata, O fasciculata, O fibrifera, O gehrti, O lithophila, O ouropretana, O rigida, O robusta, O sarcophylla O schultesii and O serrana. Plants within this alliance are robust, small to large, have strong roundish ramicauls that are not laterally compressed and are more than .08” [2mm] thick in the upper part.

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Orchids of the High Mountain Atlantic Rainforest in SE Brazil Warren & Miller 1994;Mille et Une Mini Orchideees Roguenant 2009 photo ok;

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------