Native to Panama and Colombia
Edited 12 February 2008
© Nina Rach
Originally published by Oakes Ames in Schedulae Orchidianae 10(4) 1930. Named for Bouché.
Dressler includes this species in his key for mountainous areas of Panama (800-2500 meters). He notes that the lip is purple and strongly ruffled, with 7 yellow, crisped keels; that sepals and petals are a rose-purple. Plants grow up to about 75cm high, and the sepals are 5.5 to 6.5 cm (presumably this is the length). No illustration is provided in the book, however.
Williams and Allen describe the species as such:
"Slender terrestrial or epiphytic herbs up to 7.5 dm. tall. Stems about 3-4 mm. in diameter. Leaves 8-17 cm. long and 3-4.5 mm. broad, elliptic or broadly elliptic-lanceolate, acute, marginate. Sepals 5.5-6.5 cm. long and 1.5-1.7 cm. broad, elliptic to lanceolate, the laterals somewhat arcuate. Petals about 6 cm. long and 2.2 cm. broad, elliptic-oblanceolate, acute, somewhat oblique. Lip about 5.5 cm. long and 5 cm. broad, obovate-orbicular, trilobulate, margins crenulate-dentate anteriorally; mid-lobe small, suborbicular; disk with 7 longitudinal, crispate carinae. Column about 2.5 cm. long. ... It is very closely allied to
S. Bletiae Reichb. f." Collected by Allen at El Valle de Anton, in Cocle State, Panama, about 1000 m. altitude.
Photo at upper left courtesy of Dave Hunt, Vera Cruz Orchids, Houston, Texas;
plant from Panama, blooming in Texas on 22 April 2001.
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This species came into bloom at the American Orchid Society's greenhouses in Delray Beach, Florida on 25 Feb 2002 and 3 April 2002; flowers remain open about 8 hours// 7:00 am til 3:00 pm.
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Woodstream Orchids describes this species:
"Rare in cultivation. Medium sized species with showy lavender short-lived flowers produced successively. Grow intermediate, with moderately bright-bright light, evenly moist."
Photo at right by Sr. Andres Maduro, Panama.
Robert L. Dressler (1980) "Checklist of the Orchids of Panama," in: Orchids of Panama, Missouri Botanical Garden.
Robert L. Dressler (1993) Field Guide to the Orchids of Costa Rica and Panama. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 374pp. [p.321, no picture]
Robert L. Dressler and Diego Bogarin C. (September 2007) "Two attractive new species of Sobralia from Panama," in: Orchids, magazine of the Amer. Orch. Soc., 76(9): 696-701.
[New: Sob. fuzukiae, mireyae. Mentioned with regard to Sob. fuzukiae: Sob. candida, lancea, pardalina, quinata, leucoxantha, nutans. Mentioned with regard to Sob. mireyae: Sob. macrophylla, leucoxantha, citrea, kerryae, kruskayae, theobromina, bouchei, wilsoniana]
Louis Otho Williams and Paul Hamilton Allen (8 March 1946) Orchidaceae, Flora of Panama Part III Fascicle 2, pp. 107-246 in: Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 33:30. [no illus.]
Louis Otho Williams and Paul Hamilton Allen (1980) Orchids of Panama, facsimile reprint of the 1946 volume by the Missouri Botanical Garden, p.136. [no illus.]
International Plant Names Index (IPNI)
ING: Index Nominum Genericorum, URL: http://rathbun.si.edu/botany/ing/ from the U.S. National Herbarium, Dept. of Systematic Biology - Botany, Smithsonian Institution.
