Myoxanthus hystrix (Rchb.f.) Luer 1982 SUBGENUS Myoxanthus SECTION Antennella Luer 1992
Photos © Eric Hunt
Drawing by Carl Luer
Common Name The Porcupine Myoxanthus [An allusion to the hispid, cauline sheaths]
Flower Size .2" [5 mm]
Found in Colombia and Venezuela at elevations around 2300 to 2500 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cold growing epiphyte with erect ramicauls enveloped by 3 to 7, tubular, hispidulous sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, thickly coriaceous, narrowly elliptical-ovate, acute, cuneate below into the subpetiolate base leaf that blooms in the fall and winter on a fascile of .05" to .1" [1 to 2mm] long, single successive flowers arising from the apex of the ramicual with pubescent, as long as the pedicel floral bracts.
"Characterized by the long, creeping habit, slender leaves longer than the ramicaul, flowers similar to Myoxanthus reymondii, but with only slightly clavate petals and a revoluste lip with neither calli nor lobes as found in Myoxanthus melittanthus. The tips of the petals of Myoxanthus cimex and Myoxanthus reymondii are markedly clavate." Luer 1992
Synonyms Dubois-reymondia hystrix (Rchb.f.) Brieger 1977; Humboltia hystrix (Rchb.f.) Kuntze 1891; *Pleurothallis hystrix Rchb.f. 1854; Pleurothallis lonchophylla Rchb.f. 1886
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated Vol 4 Dunsterville & Garay 1966 as Pleurothallis hystrix drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 36 #9 1967 as Pleurothallis hystrix; Flora de Venezuela Foldats Volumen XV Part 2 1970 as Pleurothallis hystrix drawing fide; Orchids of Venezuela, An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 3 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 as Pleurothallis hystrix drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol IX Systematics of Myoxanthus Luer 1992 drawing fide; Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 2 Ramiro and Carnevali 2000 drawing fide; Pleurothallids Neotropical Jewels Vol 1 Karremans & Viera 2020 photo fide; A taxonomic synopsis and morphological characterization of Myoxanthus (Orchidaceae: Pleurothallidinae) Gustavo Rojas-Alvarado, Mario A. Blanco, A. P. Karremans 2021 Photo fide
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