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Phragmipedium schlimii
Icones Colombianae 5

Phragmipedium schlimii

Phragmipedium schlimii (Linden ex Rchb.f.) Rolfe, Orchid Rev. 4: 332. 1896.

Type: Colombia. “Ocaña, Février [1852], 4000 fts endroits humides”, L.J. Schlim 407 (holotype, W).

Illustrated specimen: Colombia. Antioquia: Municipality of Yarum- al, Reserva Natural Los Magnolios, 1500 m. 21 September 2019. S. Vieira 054 (LCDP voucher).

Eponymy: Named in honor of the Belgian botanist Louis Joseph Schlim, half brother to Jean Linden.

Phragmipedium schlimii is endemic to Colombia. It can be recognized by the lithophytic habit, growing in abrupt, moist slopes among leafy debris, bearing little delicate whitish-pink
fluffy flowers which differ from those of its relatives by a spherical pouch with dorsal fenestrations. It has been reported in the West, Central and north of the Eastern Andean Cordilleras, between 1200–2000 m in elevation. The P. schlimii group includes four more species: P. fischeri Braem & Mohr, P. andreettae Cribb & Pupulin, P. manzurii Higgins & Viveros and P. anguloi Braem, Tesón & Manzur which differ in flower color, the pouch and staminode shape and details of their vegetative morphology. The distinctness of some of these species is debated, Braem & Tesón (2016) and Cribb & Purver (2017) consider P. manzurii a form or variation of P. schlimii. Autogamy has been observed in P. schlimii and P. fischeri.