Microchilus unicornis (Ormerod) E.C.Smidt & M.W.Chase 2021

TYPE Drawing of Ligeophila unicornis by Paul Ormeroid andHarvard Pap. Bot. 13: 64 fig 9 Ormerod 2008

Full ShadeHot Winter

Common Name The Single Horned Microchilus

Flower Size .24" [6 mm]

Found in Amazonas state of Venezuela in forests seasonally flooded by blackwaters at elevations around 100 to 200 meters as a small sized, hot growing terrestrial with a creeping rhizome giving rose to an erect, terete stem carrying 3 to 4, apical, lanceolate, acute, petiolate base leaves that blooms in the winter on an erect, terminal, pubescent, purplish green, 3.08" [7.7 cm] long, peduncle about 1.08" [2.7 cm] long, provided with 2 sheathing bracts, rachis [5.2 cm] long, subdensely 12 flowered inflorescence with ovate-lanceolate, acute, longer than the ovary floral bracts and carrying white, externally laxly pubescent flowers with a white lip.

"This species closely resembles its Venezuelan relative M amazónica but its flowers have obovate-oblanceolate (not oblong) petals, a labellum hypochile with truncate (not oblique, uninterrupted) sidelobes, and an epichile with a basal, medial, oblong, compressed projection. The same characters of the labellum also distinguish m unicornis from narrow-leaved forms of Microchilus juruenensis ." Ormerod 2008

Synonyms Aspidogyne unicornis (Ormerod) Meneguzzo 2012; *Ligeophila unicornis Ormerod 2008

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

Harvard Pap. Bot. 13: 63 Ormerod 2008 as Ligeophila unicornis

Harvard Pap. Bot. 13: 64 fig 9 Ormerod 2008 as Ligeophila unicornis drawing fide

Orquidário 26: 90 Meneguzzo 2012 as Aspidogyne unicornis

Materials to the Orchid Flora of Colombia Vol 1: 395 Szlachetko & Kolanowska 2017 as Ligeophila unicornis drawing fide;

* Bot. J. Linn. Soc. 197: 345 E.C.Smidt & M.W.Chase 2021

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