Platystele stenostachya (Rchb. f.) Garay 1962
Photo by © Richard Ashby and his Flickr Orchid Photo Website
Photo by Bruno Larsen and his Flickr Orchid Photo Website
Photo by AMO and their Mexican Orchid Website
Photo by Weyman Bussey
Drawing by Carl Luer
to 
MOSTLY
and
Common Name The Thin Inflorescence Platystele
Flower Size .12 to .16" [3 to 4 mm]
Found in Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Costa Rica, Panama, French Guiana, Surinam, Guyana, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia at sea level to 1700 meters, as a hot to cool growing, mini-miniature epiphyte from with a slender, erect stems partially enveloped by 2 to 3 thin, ribbed, imbricating sheaths with a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, narrowly elliptic-obovate, subacute leaf with the base narrowly cuneate to the petiole and blooms mostly in the summer and fall on an erect, slender, to 1.32" [3.3 cm] long including the .12 to .6" [3 to 15 mm] long peduncle, fasciculate, 1 to 4 simultaneous, successive opening several flowered, imbricating inflorescence with thin, shorter than the pedicel bract.
A variable species in both size of vegetative parts and floral parts. Colors of the flowers vary as well. The sepals vary form acute to obtuse. A Costa Rican form has a deep purple lip and was described as P lankesteri [se variety photo belw]. Usually the minute flowers are produces successively, but often 2 to 3 occur simultaneously in short racemes that emerge from neasr the apex of elongated ramicauls. The thick, ovate lip about as large as the lateral sepals, is covered by large, capitate tails." Luer 1990
Synonyms Humboldtia dubia (A.Rich. & Galeotti) Kuntze 1891; Humboldtia stenostachya (Rchb.f.) Kuntze 1891; Humboltia dubia (A. Rich. & Galeotti) Kuntze 1891; Humboltia stenostachya (Rchb. f.) Kuntze 1891; Platystele jamanxinensis Campacci & J.B.F.Silva 2015; Pleurothallis dubia A. Rich. & Galeotti 1845; Pleurothallis dubia var. myriantha Schltr. 1922; Pleurothallis lankesteri Rolfe 1914; Pleurothallis minutiflora S. Watson 1888; Pleurothallis myriantha F. Lehm. & Kraenzl. 1899; *Pleurothallis stenostachya Rchb. f. 1844; Pleurothallis stenostachya var. lankesteri (Rolfe) Ames 1924
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Linnaea 18: 399. Rchb.f 1844 as Pleurothallis stenostachya; Bonplandia Rchb.f 1856 as Pleurothallis stenostachya; Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 17:20. Panama Schlechter 1922 as Pleurothallis dubia; Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 19: 106. Costa Rica Schlechter 1923 as Pleurothallis stenostachya; The Orchids of Panama L.O. Williams & P Allen 1946 as Pleurothallis stenostachya; Orchids of Guatemala and Belize Ames & Correll 1952 as Pleurothallis stenostachya drawing fide; * Studies in American orchids VI Canadian Journal of Botany 34(2):241-260 Garay 1962; Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated Vol 3 Dunsterville & Garay 1965 drawing fide; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965 as Pleurothallis stenostachya; Flora de Venezuela Foldats Volumen XV Part 2 1970 as Pleurothallis stenostachya drawing fide; Orchids of Venezuela, An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 3 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 52 No 6 1983 photo fide; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 1079 Dodson 1984 drawing fide; The Orchids of Surinam Werkhoven 1986; An Introdution to the Orchids of Mexico Wiard 1987 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 57 No 2 1988 photo fide; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Series II plate 0274 Dodson & Vasquez 1989 drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol VII Systematics of Platystele Luer 1990 drawing fide; The Manual Of Cultivated Orchid Species Bechtel, Cribb & Launert 1992 drawing/photo fide; Orchid Digest Vol 58 No 4 1994 photo fide; Guatemala Y Sus Orquideas Behar & Tinschert 1998 photo fide; Orchid Digest Vol 63 #3 1999 photo fide; Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 3 Ramiro and Carnevali 2000 drawing fide; Rudolf Schlechter Die Orchideen Band 1C lieferung 42 - 43 pg 2626 - 2762 Brieger 2001 photo good; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 4 Dodson 2003 photo fide; Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica Vol 3 Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003; Orquideas de la Serrania del Baudo Misas Urreta 2006 drawing/photo fide; Orchid Species of Peru Zelenko & Bermudez 2009 photo fide; A Compendium Of Miniature Orchid Species Vol 2 Parsons & Gerritsen 2013 photo hmm = P reflexa?; Guia de Orquideas de Chiapas Carlos Rommel Beutelspacher Baigts 2013 photo good; AOS Bulletin Vol 86 # 11 2017 photo fide; Diversity of Pleurothallidinae in Guatemala: An Endangered Orchid Subtribe with High Economic and Horticultural Potentials Edgar Mo Mo, Cetzal, Basu and Vega 2017 photo fide; Orchid Genera and Species in Guatemala Archila, Szlachchetko, Chiron, Lipinska, Mystkowska and Bertolini 2018; Vanishing Beauty, Native Costa Rican Orchids Vol 2 Lacaena to Pteroglossa Pupulin 2020 photo fide
Platystele stenostachya (Rchb. f.) Garay 1962 var lankesteri
Photos by © Walter Schug
A color and size form of the previous species.
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