Pleurothallis imperialis Luer 1975 SUBGENUS Pleurothallis SECTION Macrophyllae-Fasciculatae Lindl 1859
Photo courtesy of Lourens Grobler ©
Photo courtesy of Dale and Deni Borders.
Photo courtesy of Patricia Harding.
Photo courtesy of Weyman Bussey, plant grown by Jim Hamilton.
TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer and The Epidendra Website
to 
Common Name The Imperial Pleurothallis
Flower Size 2/5" [1 cm]
Found in Colombia and Pichincha and Carchi provinces of Ecuador on steep embankments at an altitude of 1000 to 2500 meters in very wet montane cloud forests as a small to medium sized, cool to cold growing, caespitose epiphytic or terrestrial species with an elongate, slender, terete ramcaul enveloped basally by 2 to 3 tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical, ovate, acuminate, tridenticulate, deeply cordate below into the sessile base leaf that blooms in the winter and spring on an apical, arising from a spathe, short to 1" [2.5 cm], fasciculate, successively single flowered inflorescence with a tubular, much shorter than the pedicel floral bract and holds the flower close to the leaf base.
Distinguished by its large habit, large spreading, deeply cordate leaf and a large colorful flower with obtuse and multiveined sepals, broad, convex, and mostly glabrous except for the microscopically cellular-glandular margins and a transversely obovoid lip with a protruding, pouch-like apex. Similar to the related P marthae but it has rugose-verrucose lip and spiculate petals.
The other giant leafed relatives are P aguirrei; P gargantua, P reginae, P teaguei all of Section Macrophyllae-Fasciclatae and P colossus of Section Macrophyllae-Racemosae.
Synonyms Acronia imperialis [Luer] Luer 2005; Zosterophyllanthos imperialis ( Luer ) Szlach. & Marg. 2002
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Selbyana 1(2): 186. Luer 1975 drawing fide;
Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 236 Dodson 1980 drawing fide;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol III Systematics of Pleurothallis Luer 1986;
Orchids from The Coast Of Ecuador Arosemana, Jurado, Estrada and Konanz 1988 photo not;
Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 4 Dodson 2003 drawing fide;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum XXVII Systematics of Dryadella and Acronia Section Macrophyllae-Fasciculatae Luer 2005 as Acronia imperialis
Icones Pleurothallidinarum XXVII Systematics of Dryadella and Acronia Section Macrophyllae-Fasciculatae Luer 2005 as Acronia imperialis drawing fide
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