Bifrenaria tyrianthina (type color forma)

[Frdemetr]

Today is the tyrianthina day (typical color of the species - "tyrianthinus" means "dressed in purple"). This especimen shows the typical characteristics of the species: vigorous vegetative growth; upright and high spikes, almost surpassing the height of leaves (leaves+pseudobulbs may exceed 40cm in height) and the spur very large relative to the size of the flower - these characteristics easily distinguished tyrianthina from Bifrenaria harrisoniae, with which it is (oddly) confused. Other features include the vegetative habit (tyrianthina is strictly rupicolous, while harrisoniae is epiphytic and optionally rupicolous) and something I can not post (at least for now!): the smell is intense but not exactly pleasant, resembling "old flowers” in tyrianthina (totally different from the delicious fragrance of harrisoniae, believe me)