Pleurothallis helenae Fawc. & Rendle 1909 SUBGENUS Specklinia SECTION Muscariae Luer 1986
Photo by © Mikael Karlbom and his Flickr Orchid Photo Website
Drawing by © Hagen Stenzel and Systematics and evolution of the genus Pleurothallis R. Br. (Orchidaceae) in the Greater Antilles
Common Name Helen's Pleurothallis [Mrs Helen Wood English Plant Illustrator later 1800's - early 1900-'s]
Flower Size .1" [2 mm]
Found in Cuba, Haiti, Baharona, Peravia, Bahoruco, Santiago and Constanza provinces of Dominican Republic and Jamaica on twigs or rocks in mosses and lichens; prefers humid and partially open places like foggy mountain crests in elfin forests from 1000 to 1300 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cool growing, caespitose epiphyte or lithophyte with very short ramicauls enveloped by 2 scarious, tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical, coriaceous, green, glabrous, narrowly spathulate, acute to obtuse, tridentate, narrowly attenuate into the base leaf that blooms on a terminal, subtended by a sheath and arising through an annulus, ascending, .4 to .75" [1 to 1.8 cm] long, 2 to 6 flowered inflorescence with much shorter than the pedciel floral bract.
"Characterized by the minute, caespitose habit with twice longer, hair-like racemes of 2 to 3 successive flowers.The sepals are carinate and acuminate, the petals are fimbriate and also acuminate and the lip is red, thick and oblong, cellular-papillose and rounded a tthe apex. Below the middle the lateral lobes are low and broadly rounded and a pair of pubescent, oblong calli are on the disc." Luer 2006
Synonyms Andreettaea helenae (Fawc. & Rendle) A.Doucette First published in Internet Orchid Sp. Photo Encycl. Nomencl. Notes 8(1):4 2022; Muscarella helenae (Fawc. & Rendle) Luer 2006; Specklinia helenae (Fawc. & Rendle) Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* J. Bot. 47: 4 Fawcett & Rendle 1909;
Flora of Jamaica Fawcett & Rendle 1910;
Flora of Jamaica Fawcett & Rendle 1910 drawing fide;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol III Systematics of Pleurothallis Luer 1986;
Lindleyana Vol 16 No 4:258 Pridgeon and Chase 2001 as Specklinia helenae;
Systematics and evolution of the genus Pleurothallis R. Br. (Orchidaceae) in the Greater Antilles Hagen Stenzel 2004 drawing fide;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVIII A Reconsideration of Masdevallia Systematics of Specklinia Luer 2006 as Muscarella helenae
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVIII A Reconsideration of Masdevallia Systematics of Specklinia Luer 2006 as Muscarella helenae drawing fide;
Orchid Flora of the Greater Antilles Ackerman 2014;
Pleurothallids Neotropical Jewels Vol 1 Karremans & Viera 2020 as Muscarella helenae photo fide;
Internet Orchid Sp. Photo Encycl. Nomencl. Notes 8(1):4 Doucette 2022 as Andreettaea helenae
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
