Platystele lawessonii Luer 1994

TYPE Drawing by Carl Luer and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website

Hot LATE SummerEARLYFall

Common Name or Meaning Lawesson's Platystele [American Discoverer of species current]

Flower Size .24" [6 mm]

Found in Napo province of Ecuador in tropical rainforests at elevations around 260 to 350 meters as a mini-miniature sized, hot growing epiphyte with slender, erect, ramicauls enveloped by 2 to 3, thin, tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect coriaceous, narrowly oblanceoalte, subacute to obtuse leaf that is narrowly cuneate below into the long-petiolate base and blooms in the late summer and early fall on an erect, subcongested, subsecund, filiform, 1 to 1.48" [2.5 to 3.7 cm] long including the .8 to 1.2" [2 to 3 cm] long peduncle, successively few flowered inflorescence arising laterally from the ramicaul with thin floral bracts.

"This very small species occurs in the lowlands of eastern Ecuador, where it has been collected but once to my knowledge. The habit with narrowly elliptical leaves is not distinctive except for the very small size. The hairlike peduncle, between .8 to 1.2" [20 and 30 mm] long, bears a tiny, subsecund raceme no longer than .28" [seven millimeters]. Capsules seem to be readily formed. The minute flowers are among the smallest of the genus, the ovate, concave sepals being no more than .024" [0.6 mm] long. The petals are smaller and subacute. No veins are visible in either the sepals or petals, but the cells are easily visible with strong magnification. The lip, slightly larger than the lateral sepals, is coarsely cellular-verrucose." Luer 1994

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XI Systematics of Lepanthes Subgenus Brachycladium and Pleurothallis Subgenus Aenigma, Subgenus Elongata and Subgenus Kranzlinella Luer 1994 Drawing fide; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 4 Dodson 2003 photos fide

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