Microchilus plantagineus (L.) D.Dietr 1852
Photo by Jose D Alicea and his Flickr Orchid Photo Website
Photo by Mark Nir and Orchidaceae Antillannae
Flower Closeup Photo by Richard GAUTIER and his Guadeloupe Orchid Website
Common Name The Plantago-Like Erythrodes
Flower Size .2" [5 mm]
Found in Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leewards, Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago, the Windwards and Venezuela in underbrush of humid montane forests at elvations around 1200 meters as a medium to giant sized, cool growing terrestrial with an erect stem carrying 4 to 7, plicate, ovate-elliptic, petiolate leaves and blooms in the fall through spring on a terminal, hairy, 12 to 18" [30 to 45 cm] long, loosely many flowered racemose inflorescence.
Synonyms Erythrodes plantaginea (L.) Fawc. & Rendle 1910; Orchis plantaginea [L.] Sw. 1800; Pelexia bursaria Lindley 1840; Physurus eliator Rchb.f 1855; Physurus plantaginea [L.] Lindley 1840; Platythelys latifolia (L.) Garay & Ormerod 2002; Satyrium latifolium L. 1760; *Satyrium plantaginea L 1759
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Bonplandia Rchb.f 1855 as Physurus eliator; Symbolae Antillanae Vol VI Orchidaceae Urban 1909 as Physurus plantagineus; Flora of Jamaica Fawcett & Rendle 1910 drawing hmm; Flore Descriptive des Antilles Francaises H. Stehle 1939 as Erythrodes plantaginea drawing good; Native Orchids of Trinidad Schultes 1960; Flora de Venezuela Foldats Volumen XV Part 1 1969 as Erythrodes plataginea; Flora of the Lesser Antilles Garay & Sweet 1974 drawing ok; An Orchid Flora Of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands Ackerman 1995 drawing fide; Orchidaceae Antillanae Nir 2000; The Orchids of Cuba Llamacho & Larramendi 2005 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 77 #1 2008 as Platythelys latifolis photo fide; Orchids of French Guiana Szlatchenko, Veyret, Mytnik-Ejsmont, Sawicka, Rutowski and Baranow 2012 drawing ok
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