Orchid Species: Homalopetalum costaricense

ORIGIN: This miniature sized, cool to warm growing, trailing, pendant, epiphytic or lithophytic species with tiny mule ear leaves is found from Mexico Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Peru on scrubby trees on larger branches and trunks or moss and lichen covered rocks in damp oak and pine forests with a dry season often in shade at elevetions of 500-2000 meters.

DESCRIPTION: This miniature sized, cool to warm growing, trailing, pendant, epiphytic or lithophytic species with tiny mule ear leaves is found from Mexico Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Peru on scrubby trees on larger branches and trunks or moss and lichen covered rocks in damp oak and pine forests with a dry season often in shade at elevetions of 500-2000 meters with ovate-eliptic pseudobulbs subtended by imbricate triangular sheaths and carrying a single subcoriaceous, ovate-lanceolate, carinate beneath leaf that is conduplicate at the base and blooms on a terminal, arcuate to pendant, short to 3 [2.5 to 7.7 cm], single flowered inflorescence arising on mature growths and occurring in the spring and summer and holding the nocturnally fragrant [herbal to watermelon] flowers just above leaf length. Cool, constant damp conditions will be needed and it is best mounted on a slab.

FLOWER SIZE: To almost 2 inches [to almost 6 cm] -- information provided by Jay Pfahl, author of the Internet Orchid Species Encyclopedia (IOSPE).

Most awarded/recent cultivars: Hom. pumilio 'León' (2001) Hom. pumilio h.f. album 'Warsaw Spyder' (1997) Hom. pumilio 'Riopelle' (1992) Hom. pumilio 'Willow Pond' (1964)