Encyclia androsiana

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naoki

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I got this as Encyclia unaensis from Ecuagenera in spring 2017. I grow a couple Encyclia, and don't know about them too much. After digging some info, it turned out to be a Bahaman endemic (instead of Brazillian endemic). I found only a few photos of this species by googling (other than the ones used for the original description done in 2012). But I have a feeling that there are quite a few photos of E. androsiana mislabeled as E. unaensis. I wrote a comparison post in my Orchid Borealis blog post (link). Hopefully, it helps for correct identification.

It does look like E. tampensis, but the original paper shows the differences (link in the blog post). It has strong, sweet and pleasant fragrance, which I like a lot. It is a warm grower. Last year, when I had cooler, it made deformed flowers. This year, the number of flowers are small, but they are not deformed any more.


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Thank you! I think that it matches with the description, but I'm not completely sure. I was thinking of contacting Dr. Ruben Sauleda (of Ruben in Orchids), who described it, but I can't find a contact info.

He mentioned 2 differences:

E. androsiana
- the side lobes of the labellum obtuse, flat and not tightly clasping the column
- the labellum is basally adnate to the column

E. tampensis
- the side lobes are acute, clasping the column
- the lip is free from the column

But when I looked at photos of E. tampensis on internet, there are quite a few E. tampensis, whose side lobes were not clasping the column and more open. I would say mine has definitely obtuse side lobes (more clearer in the dissected flower photos), though. And 1-2mm at the base of the column seems to be fused to the lip. But is this what he meant? It would be helpful if I had E. tampensis.

I told Ecuagenera about the miss-ID, and asked about the origin. But I doubt that we would find out where it came from, unfortunately.

Yes, they look really close morphologically, and people need to investigate if they are appropriate at species level (but small differences in characters closely tied to reproduction can be biologically important)!
 

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