!Pleurothallis ruscifolia (Jacq.) R. Br. 1813 SUBGENUS Pleurothallis SECTION Pleurothallis SUBSECTION Pleurothallis SERIES Pleurothalls Luer 1986
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Common Name The Helleborine Rusci Majoris-Like Leaf Pleurothallis
Flower Size 1/4 to 3/4" [6mm to 2 cm]
Found from Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil and Venezuela, French Guiana, Guyana, Surinam, Trinidad & Tobago, Windwards, Puerto Rico, Leewards, Jamaica?, Dominican Republic and Cuba as a miniature to small sized, caespitose, cool to hot growing, caespitose epiphyte or lithophytic species in wet montane forests and piedmont forests at elevations of 40 to 2000 meters with a slender, terete ramicaul enveloped basally by a tubular scarious bract and another at the middle and carrying a single, apical, elliptic-lanceolate, attenuate to the short conduplicate petiole, acuminate leaf that blooms on a lateral, short inflorescence subtended with imbricating bracts that blooms mostly in the summer holding the fasciculate, tight globular clusters of single, occasionally successively, few flowered inflorescence with thin, half ast l;ong as the pedicel floral bracts and carrying bilabiate, delicately fragrant flowers held close to the leaf base.
This species is widespread and is the type for the genus as well as this subsection and can be variable in size.
"Easliy recognized by the elliptical leaves are more or less acuminate at both ends. The small, delicate, yellowish flowers emerge froma small spathe ar the base of the petiole of the leaf. Most peduncles are single flowered, but a second flower often follows, or 2 are produced simultaneously in a loose raceme. The dorsal sepal and sybsepal are acute, the petals are narrow and shorter and the lip is ovate and acute. The closely allied P chloroleuca and P flaveola are much larger, but there are some intermediate sizes." Luer 1998
Synonyms Dendrobium ruscifolium (Jacq.) Sw. 1799; *Epidendrum ruscifolium Jacq. 1760; Humboldtia ruscifolia (Jacq.) Kuntze 1891; Humboldtia succosa Pav. ex Lindl. 1830; Humboltia ruscifolia (Jacq.) Kuntze 1891; Humboltia succosa Pav. ex Lindl. 1830; Pleurothallis glomerata Ames 1923; Pleurothallis multicaulis Poepp. & Endl. 1836; Pleurothallis ruscifolia var. caquetana Schltr. 1924; Pleurothallis succosa Lindl.1830
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
Enum. Syst. Pl.: 29 Jacq. 1760 as Epidendrum ruscifolium;
* W.T.Aiton, Hortus Kew. 5: 211 R. Br. 1813;
Bonplandia Rchb.f pg 24 1854 as P laurifolia;
Bonplandia Rchb.f 1856 as P succosa;
Xenia Orchidaceae Rchb.f 1862 as P laurifolia drawing fide;
Revis. Gen. Pl. 2: 668. Kuntze 1891 as Humboldtia ruscifolia;
Flora Brasiliensis Vol III Part 4:451 Martius, Cogniaux 1893;
Symbolae Antillanae Vol VI Orchidaceae Urban 1909;
Flora of Jamaica Fawcett & Rendle 1910;
Schedul. Orch. 4: 21-22. Ames 1923 as P glomerata;
Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 19: 25. Costa Rica Schlechter 1923;
Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 19: 110. Costa Rica Schlechter 1923;
Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 19: 194. Costa Rica Schlechter 1923;
Beitrage Zur Orchideenkunde Von Colombia 27:55 Schlechter 1924 P ruscifolia var caquetana;
Flore Descriptive des Antilles Francaises H. Stehle 1939 drawing good;
The Orchids of Panama L.O. Williams & P Allen 1946 drawing good;
Orchids of Guatemala and Belize Ames & Correll 1952 drawing fide;
Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated Vol 1 Dunsterville & Garay 1959 as P wendlandiana drawing fide;
Native Orchids of Trinidad Schultes 1960;
Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965;
AOS Bulletin Vol 36 #9 1967 as P wendlandianum;
Flora de Venezuela Foldats Volumen XV Part 2 1970 drawing ok;
Flora of the Lesser Antilles Garay & Sweet 1974 drawing fide;
Orchidaceae Brasilensis Band 1 Pabst & Dungs 1975 drawing ok;
Die Orchideen 3 Auflage Bd 1 Sonderabdruck aus Schlechter Lieferung 7 385 - 448 Brieger, Maatsch and Senghas 1975 drawing fide;
AOS Bulletin Vol 48 No 10 1979 photo fide;
Orchids of Venezuela, An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 3 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 drawing fide;
Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 256 Atwood 1980 drawing fide;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol III Systematics of Pleurothallis Luer 1986;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol III Systematics of Pleurothallis Luer 1986 drawing fide;
Catologo Descriptivo de Las Orquideas Cubanas Acuna 1987;
The Orchids of Surinam Werkhoven 1986;
Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 1383 Atwood 1989 drawing fide;
Orchids Travel By Air A Pictoral Safari Mulder, Mulder-Roelfsema and Schuiteman 1990 photo fide;
Icones Orchidacearum Peruviarum Plate 355 Bennett & Christenson 1995 drawing fide;
An Orchid Flora Of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands Ackerman 1995 drawing ok;
Orchids of Jamaica Gloudon & Tobisch 1995 drawing ok;
Orchids of Bolivia Vasquez & Ibisch Vol 1 2000 drawing fide;
Orchidaceae Antillanae Nir 2000;
Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 3 Ramiro and Carnevali 2000 drawing fide;
Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana Vol 7 Steyermark, Berry, Yatskievych and Holst 2003;
Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica Vol 3 Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003 drawing good;
Systematics and evolution of the genus Pleurothallis R. Br. (Orchidaceae) in the Greater Antilles Hagen Stenzel 2004 drawing fide;
Orquideas de la Serrania del Baudo Misas Urreta 2006 drawing/photo fide; Orchids of Costa Rica Vol 2 Morales 2009 photo fide;
An Illustrated Field Guide to the Orchids of the Yotoco Forest Reserve Colombia Kolanowska, Escobar, Sanchez & Szlachetko 2011 drawings/photo fide;
Orchid Genera and Species in Guatemala Archila, Szlachchetko, Chiron, Lipinska, Mystkowska and Bertolini 2018;
Orchid Flora of the Greater Antilles Ackerman 2014 drawing fide;
Lankesteriana 19(1). 31 - 55 2019 photo fide;
Vanishing Beauty, Native Costa Rican Orchids Vol 2 Lacaena to Pteroglossa Pupulin 2020 photo fide
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