Object Details
- Description
- This medium sized orchid is one of the few Neotropical orchids which uses sexual deception to lure its pollinator. To male bees, M. egertoniana’s flower looks like a female bee. In the process of trying to get to the non-existent female bee, the male bee falls into the flower and struggles to get out. The bee emerges with M. egertoniana’s pollinia stuck to it, and moves on to another “female bee” flower to try again.
- Pollination Syndrome
- Bee (male), sexual deception
- Provenance
- From a cultivated plant of known (indirect) wild origin
- Accession Number
- 2014-0987A
- Restrictions & Rights
- CC0
- Life Form
- Lithophytic
- Bloom Characteristics
- Erect inflorescence is 6-14" (15-35.5 cm) long with a single pale yellow flower striped in light red. Flowers are 1.5" (4 cm) across.
- Plant Size
- 10-18" x 3-6" (25-46 x 8-15 cm), excluding inflorescence
- Range
- S Mexico to Guyana and Ecuador
- Habitat
- Forests; 0-3300ft (0-1000m)
- See more items in
- Smithsonian Gardens Orchid Collection
- Common Name
- Dragon's Mouth Orchid
- Egerton's Maxillaria
- Egerton's Trigonidium
- Group
- [vascular plants]
- Class
- Equisetopsida
- Subclass
- Magnoliidae
- Superorder
- Lilianae
- Order
- Asparagales
- Family
- Orchidaceae
- Subfamily
- Epidendroideae
- Genus
- Maxillaria
- Species
- egertoniana
- Smithsonian Gardens
- Topic
- Orchids
- Living Collections
- Record ID
- ofeo-sg_2014-0987A
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ax7ce8823f3-21b0-45b4-bf3f-e1b0e56ffde1
