The Orchid Species Society Inc. Page 46.

Coelia triptera by Bruce & Chris Bennett The only reference I have on this species is in A Golden Guide Orchids by

Shuttleworth, Zim, and Dillon, who state that Coelia is a monotypic genus,

although formerly other species now placed in Bothriochilus were included. The

flowers of C.triptera lack a column-foot present in Bothriochilus.

Bechtel, Cribb, and Launert in The Manual of Cultivated Orchid Species state that

H.G.Reichenbach considered Bothriochilus to be a synonym of Coelia but that

currently the two genera are considered distinct. They do not list C.triptera or any

other Coelia species. Distribution of 4 species of Bothriochilus is listed as from

Mexico to Panama. Botanica’s Pocket Orchids list 2 species of Coelia viz., C. bella and

C.macrostachya, with a note that Bothriochilus bellus is a synonym of Coelia bella

but with no listing of the genus Bothriochilus. They state that Coelia is a genus of

about 5 species distributed from Mexico and the West Indies to Guatemala,

Honduras, El Salvador, and Panama, mostly epiphytic, but also terrestrial and

lithophytic.

Our plant is growing in a 150mm pot of perlite and peat, hanging high in the shade

house and seems to like even moisture all year. It consists of 12 roundish

pseudobulbs up to 40x45mm, each with up to 5 long leaves. It had 2 upright

inflorescence shorter than the leaves, of 30-40 small white flowers each with thin

brown sheaths 30mm long standing out between flowers. Each flower is on a 3mm

pedicle, a pale green 3 sided ovary 8mm long, with sepals and petals 9mm long, all

up 20mm. The flowers are non-resupinate, cupped and have brown markings at the

base of the labellum and on the column top.

September 2003.