Brassavola

• Authority

  Ackerman, James D. 1995. An orchid flora of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 73: 1-203.

• Family

  Orchidaceae

• Scientific Name

  Brassavola

• Description

  
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  Genus Description - Plants sympodial, epiphytic or lithophytic, caespitose. Roots thick, velamentous, glabrous. Rhizomes short, stout. Secondary stems slender to pseudobulbous. Leaves mostly solitary, articulate, fleshy, coriaceous, conduplicate, subterete to flattened. Inflorescences terminal, pedunculate, racemose, 1- to several-flowered. Flowers large, white and/or green, showy, resupinate with a strong nocturnal fragrance. Sepals and petals subsimilar, spreading, linear to linear-lanceolate. Lip clawed, tubular around column, apically spreading. Column erect, short, winged; stigma entire; anther terminal, operculate, pollinia 8, hard, waxy. Fruit a long-beaked capsule.

• Discussion

  Brassavola R. Brown in Aiton, Hort. Kew., ed. 2, 5: 216. 1813. Type species. Brassavola cucullata (Linnaeus) Brown based on Epidendrum cucullatum Linnaeus of the Caribbean. A neotropical genus of about 15 species. The generic name honors Antonia Musa Brassavola, a Venetian nobleman and botanist, professor of logic, physics, and medicine at Ferrara. Special Literature. N. H. Williams, 1981.