Platystele ximenae Luer & Hirtz 1991
Photo by © Eric Hunt
Photo courtesy of Danny Lentz ©
TYPE Drawing by Carl Luer
LATE
EARLY
Common Name Ximena's Platystele [Mrs Ximena Hirtz, wife of Ecuadorian Orchid Enthusiast - Current]
Flower Size .2" [5 mm]
Found from Ecuador in wet montane forests at elevations around 1250 meters as a miniature sized, cool growing epiphyte with erect, slender ramicauls enveloped basally by 2 to 3, thin, tubular sheaths and carrying a single apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, subacute to obtuse, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the late summer and early fall on an erect, loose, flexuous, disitchous, successively several flowered, to 2.8" [to 7 cm] long including the 1 to 1.6" [2.5 to 4 cm] long peduncle, racemose inflorescence arising laterally from the ramicaul.
There are 4 very similar species all from the western side of the Andes of Ecuador, P pubescens, P scopulifera, P adelphe and P ximenae which is easily distinguished from the others by its shortly pubescent sepals and the basal lobes of the cordate lip surround the column.
"Characterized by the broad petiolate leaves surpassed by a loose, flexuous, successively flowered raceme. Although karger the flowers resemble those of P pubescens, but the pubescence is short and the basal lobes of the cordate lip surround the column.
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Icones Pleurothallidinarum VIII Systematics of Lepanthospsis, Octomeria subgenus Pleurothallopsis, Restrepiella, Salpistele and Teagueia Luer 1991 drawing fide; Platystele finleyae, Pleurothallidinae, A New Species From Northwesten Ecuador Monteros, Restrepo and Baquero 2022 photo fide
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