Pleurothallis crucifera Luer & Hirtz 1996 SUBGENUS Pleurothallis SECTION Macrophyllae-Fasciculatae Lindl 1859
Photo by © Mark Wilson
Photo by Ecuagenera and their Ecuador Orchid Website
TYPE Drawing by Carl Luer
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Common Name or Meaning The Cross-Carrying Pleurothallis
Flower Size .4" [1 cm]
Found in Pinchincha, Carchi, and Imbabura provinces of Ecuador at elevations around 1000 to 2500 meters as a small sized, cool to cold growing, caespitose epiphyte with an erect slender ramicaul enveloped basally by a tubular sheath below the middle and 2 others at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, round, deeply cordate, acute, thick, sessile basally, coriaceous leaf that blooms in the late winter and early spring on a fascile arising through a spathe, of successive single flowered inflorescence with a just shorter than the pedicel floral bract and holding the flower close to the leaf base.
"Vegetatively similar to many in the section with an ovate, acute, cordate, more or less horizontal leaf borne by a slender ramicaul. The flowers are of average size, widely expanded and are borne above the leaf. The three veined dorsal and synsepal are ovate, acute and about equal in size. The entire and narrowly triangular petals stretch straight out to either side giving a cross-like appearance to the flower. The lip is triangular, acute, minutely verrucose and with a comparatively large glenion." Luer 2005
Synonyms Acronia crucifera (Luer & Hirtz) Luer 2005; Zosterophyllanthos crucifer (Luer & Hirtz) Szlach. & Kulak 2006
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Lindleyana 11: 157 Luer & Dalstrom 1996 Drawing fide;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVII Systematics of Dryadella Systematics of Macrophyllae-Fasciculatae Luer 2005 as Acronia crucifera
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVII Systematics of Dryadella Systematics of Macrophyllae-Fasciculatae Luer 2005 as Acronia crucifera drawing fide;
Orchid Digest Vol 71 No 3 2007 photo;
AOS Bulletin Vol 76 No 9 2007 as Acronia crucifera photo fide;
Lankesteriana 18: 217-230 Wilson, Zhao etal 2018 photo fide
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