Barbosella miersii (Lindl.) Schltr. 1918 SUBGENUS Barbosella
Photos by © Dalton Holland Baptista
TYPE Drawing by Carl Luer
to 
Common Name Mier's Barbosella [English Botanist in Brazil 1800's]
Flower Size 1/8" [.3 cm]
Found in southeastern Brazil on mossy trees as a mini-miniature, creeping, mat forming, warm to cool growing, long-repent epiphyte with a creeping rhizome giving rise to a short ramicaul enveloped by an acuminate sheath and carrying a single, ovoid, gradually narrowing below into the short petiolate base leaf that blooms in the spring on a 1/2" [1.25 cm] long single flowered inflorescence with a thin, oblique, acute, shorter than the ovary floral bract and holds the flower well above the leaf.
"Characterized by the thread-like rhizome with a row of tiny elliptical leaves. Similar to B gardneri as both are minute and long-repent but the leaves of B miersii ae about half the size. The sepals are microscopically ciliate and about .06" [1.5 mm] long. The even smaller petals are microscapically erose. The lip is ovoid and obtuse with revolute sides. The lip is hinged to the tip of the column foot, in all other Barbosella the lip is connected to the column foot with a "ball & socket" articulation. The column is short, terete, wingless, and broadest above the middle with an exposed, apical anther and protruding rostellum, not ventral as in other Barbosella" Luer 1000
Lindley originally did not cite a type for this genus, so Angley in 1969 proposed Barbosella miersii as the lectotype. Luer felt that B miersii was substantially different than the norm of Barbosella and actually moved it to a monotypic genus Barbrodia and assigned B gardneri as the lectotype but according to the ICBN reassignment of a lectotype to another genus was illegal. Therefore B miersii stays as the Lectotype.
Synonyms Barbrodria miersii (Lindl.) Luer 1981; Humboldtia miersii (Lindl.) Kuntze 1891; Humboltia miersii (Lindl.) Kuntze 1891; *Pleurothallis miersii Lindl. 1842; Restrepia miersii (Lindl.) Rchb. f. 1866
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Orchidaceae Brasilienses Vol 2 Pabst - Dungs 1975 as Barbosella miersii drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Systematics of the Pleurothallidinae Vol 1 1986 as Barbrodia miersii drawing fide; Manual of Orchids Stewart 1995; Miniature Orchids McQueen 1992 as Barbosella miersii; Orchids of Brazil McQueen 1993 as Barbosella miersii; Orchids of the High Mountain Atlantic Rainforest in SE Brazil Warren & Miller 1994 as Barbosella miersii drawing hmm; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XX Systematics of Jostia, Andinia, Barbosella, Barbrodia & Pleurothallis subgen Antilla, Effusia and Restrepioidia Luer 2000 as Barbrodia miersii drawing fide; Rudolf Schlechter Die Orchideen Band 1C lieferung 42-43 pg 2624 - 2756 Brieger 2001 as Barbrodia miersii drawing fide; Genera Orchidacearum Vol 4 Epidendroideae Part 1 Pridgeon, Cribb, Chase & Rasmussen 2005; Orchidees du Bresil As Orquideas da Serra Do Castelo Espirito Santo Brazil Vol 2 Chiron & Bolsanello 2013 drawing/photo fide; A Compendium of Miniature Orchid Species Parsons & Gerritsen 2013 photo fide
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