Elleanthus vernicosus Garay 1978

Photo by © Alexander Reynolds and The UC Davis Botany Photo Website

Floral Details Photo by © Andreas Kaye and his Flickr Orcid Photo Website

Common Name The Varnished Elleanthus [refers to the leaves]

Flower Size .12" [3 mm]

Found in eastern Ecuador at elevations of 1300 to 2500 meters as a large to giant sized, cool to cold growing terrestrial on embankments with unbranched, terete, leafy in the upper half stems carrying 5 to 7, thin, plicate, lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, shiny like varnish above, dark scaly beneath gradually narrowing below into the sessile leaves that blooms at most any time of the year on a terminal, sessile, cylindric, 4" [10 cm] long, densely many flowered inflorescence with 2, large, obtuse, foliaceous spathes below and purple, cymbiform, obtuse floral bracts.

Synonyms *Evelyna strobilifera Poepp. & Endl. 1836

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; *Flora of Ecuador No 9 225[1] Garay 1978 drawing ok; Icones Plantarum Tropicaum Plate 454 Dodson 1989 drawing fide; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 2 Dodson 2001 drawing fide/photo not = E virgatus; Flora of Ecuador No 87 225[3] Orchidaceae Dodson & Luer 2010

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