Maxillaria sanguinea Rolfe 1895

Photo by © Eric Hunt

Common Name The Blood-Red Maxillaria

Flower Size 5/8" [1.5 cm]

Found from Costa Rica and Panama on larger branches in primary rainforests at elevations of 50 to 900 meters as a medium sized, hot to warm growing epiphyte with fusiform, ellipsoid, tapered at both ends pseudobulbs partially enveloped basally by a few, scarious, imbricating sheaths carrying a single, apical, linear, narrowly conduplicate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the winter on a .4" [1 cm] long, single flowered inflorescence that arises on a newly formed pseudobulb with slightly fragrant flowers.

This species is similar to Maxillaria tenuifolia yet differs in having a slightly fruity fragrance, a broader usually white lip apically and only minutely spotted, a fusiform pseudobulb and narrower leaves that are never wider than .12" [3 mm] wide.

Synonyms Maxillariella sanguinea (Rolfe) M.A. Blanco & Carnevali 2007

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; AOS Bulletin Vol 28 No 7 1959 photo fide; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 1362 and 1362a Dodson 1989 drawing fide; Orchids Travel By Air A Pictoral Safari Mulder, Mulder-Roelfsema and Schuiteman 1990 photo fide; Rudolf Schlechter Die Orchideen Band 1B lieferung 28 1713 - 1776 Brieger 1993; AOS Bulletin Vol 63 No 4 1994 photo fide; Fieldiana Biology, Flora Costa Ricensis Family # 39 Orchidaceae, subtribes Maxillariinae and Oncidiinae Atwood & Mora 1999 drawing fide; Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica Vol 3 Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003; AOS Bulletin Vol 10 2008 as Maxillariella sanguinea drawing fide; Orchids of Costa Rica Vol 2 Morales 2009 as Maxillariella sanguinea photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 80 #6 2011 AS Maxillariella sanguinea photo fide; Orchid Genera and Species in Guatemala Archila, Szlachchetko, Chiron, Lipinska, Mystkowska and Bertolini 2018 as Maxillariella sanguinea; AOS Bulletin Vol 88 # 6 2019 photo fide; Vanishing Beauty, Native Costa Rican Orchids Vol 2 Lacaena to Pteroglossa Pupulin 2020 as Maxillariella sanguinea photo fide

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