Platystele rauhii Luer 1987
Photos by © Karl Senghas and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website
TYPE Drawing by Carl Luer
LATE
Common Name Rauh's Platystele [German Botanist and discoverer of species later 1900's]
Flower Size .12" [3 mm]
Found in Libertad department of Peru at elevations around 2800 meters as mini-miniature sized, cold growing lithophyte with an erect, stout ramicaul enveloped by 2 to 3, short, ribbed, imbricate sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, thickly coriaceous, semi-terete to fusiform, narrowly ovoid, acute, narrowing below into the sessile base leaf that blooms in the fall on an loose, flexuous, subdistichous, , to 4" [10 cm] long including the erect, slender 1.2" [3 cm] long peduncle, successively 2 to 3 at once, many flowered inflorescence arising laterally from the ramicaul with oblique, half as long as the pedicel floral bracts.
This comparitively coarse but minute, succulent leaved species is possibly the only one of the genus that grows lithophytically in full sun in the company of cactus. At this high altitude of little rain the days are hot and the nights are cool and humid. The floral parts are similar to P oxyglossa but P rauhii is distinguished by the broad. falcate petals that are similar to the lateral sepals." Luer 1990
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Orchidee 38(2): 61. Luer1987; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol VII Systematics of Platystele Luer 1990 drawing fide;
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