Brassia angustilabia
Brassia antherotes
Brassia arachnoidea
Brassia arcuigera - Arching Brassia
Brassia aurorae - Reddish Brassia
Brassia bidens - Two-toothed Brassia
Brassia boliviensis
Brassia caudata - Tailed Brassia
Brassia cauliformis
Brassia chloroleuca - Green-and-white Brassia
Brassia cochleata
Brassia cyrtopetala
Brassia filomenoi
Brassia gireoudiana - Gireoud's Brassia
Brassia helenae
Brassia huebneri
Brassia iguapoana |
Brassia jipijapensis - Jipijapa Brassia
Brassia josstiana
Brassia koehlerorum - Koehler's Brassia
Brassia lanceana - Lance's Brassia
Brassia maculata - Spotted Brassia
Brassia neglecta - Overlooked Brassia
Brassia pascoensis
Brassia peruviana - Peru Brassia
Brassia rhizomatosa
Brassia signata - Marked Brassia
Brassia suavissima
Brassia thyrsodes
Brassia transamazonica
Brassia verrucosa - Warty Brassia
Brassia villosa
Brassia wageneri - Wagener's Brassia
Brassia warszewiczii - Warscewicz's Brassia |
Brassia is a genus of orchids classified in the Oncidiinae subtribe.
The genus was named after William Brass, a British botanist and
illustrator, who collected plants in Africa under the supervision of
Sir Joseph Banks. Its abbreviation in the horticultural trade is Brs.
Brassia species and its popular hybrids are common in cultivation,
and are notable for the characteristic long and spreading tepals (in
some clones longer than 50 cm), which lend them the common name
"spider orchid".
This epiphytic genus occurs in South Florida, the West-Indies and
tropical America, in wet forests from sea level to altitudes under
1500 m, with the Peruvian Andes as its center. Occurrence is mostly
restricted to a certain area, but Brassia caudata can be found over
the whole geographic area.
They have large elliptic-oblong pseudobulbs with one or two
leaves at the apex, lateral, unbranched many-flowered inflorescences
with small floral bracts. The lip is not attached to the column. The
pollinarium shows a narrow stipe. There are two distichous,
foliaceous sheaths around the base, from which the inflorescence
emerges.
Brassia has a very specific method for pollination : it uses
entomophily : pollination by insects and in this case specifically
by female spider-hunter wasps of the genera Pepsis and Campsomeris.
Mistaken by the mimicry of Brassia, the wasp stings the lip, while
trying to grasp its prey without any success. By these movements the
wasp comes into contact with the pollinarium, that then sticks to
its head. By flying to another Brassia flower, this flower gets
pollinated. |
