Pleurothallis sicaria Lindl 1849 SUBGENUS Acianthera [Scheidw.] Luer 1986
Photo by © Duane McDowell and his Flickr Orchid Photo Website
Photo by © Jay Pfahl
Drawing by Carl Luer
Drawing by Carl Luer
to 
Common Name The Knife Weilding Assasin Pleurothallis [refers to the Leaf and Ramicaul]
Flower Size 1/8"
Found in Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela as a medium sized, cool to cold growing, shortly repent to caespitose epiphyte at 1000 to 2500 meters with arching to pendant ramicauls swollen basally becoming terete and then gradually widening to a complanate wide apex and enveloped basally by 2 to 3 tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical, coriaceous, narrowly linear-elliptic, acute, gradually narrowing below into the ancipitous base leaf that blooms from the summer through the winter on a short, arising through a spathe, apical, fasciculate, few flowered inflorescence with infundibuliform, shorter than the pedicel floral bracts and carrying the simultaneoulsy opening flowers close to the apex of the leaf. The arrows on the plant photo show where the flowers appear.
"Narrow to wider leaves on longer to proportionally smaller ramicauls occur but the texture of the blade and winged ramicauls are relatively thin and constant in all populations. The flowers produced in short, few flowered racemes are found in various colors, yelllow, green, almost white to olive, tan and brown with or without purple red or brown stripes. The flowers of some plants gape widely those of others do not. The synsepal varies from acute to broadly obtuse. The sepals vary form .2 to .48" [3 to 12 mm] long. The petals are minutely to microscopically serrulate. Similar variation occur with the srrations or fringes on the lip. The lip apex is acute in specimens from Venezuela but mixtures if acute, obtuse and rounded occur randomly." Luer 2004
Synonyms Acianthera alpina (Ames) Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001; Acianthera sicaria (Lindl.) Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001; Humboldtia sicaria (Lindl.) Kuntze 1891; Humboltia sicaria (Lindl.) Kuntze 1891; Pleurothallis alpina Ames 1923; Pleurothallis trigonopoda Klotzsch 1853; Pleurothallis tripteris Rchb. f. 1849;
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Edwards's Bot. Reg. 27: Misc. 91. Lindl. 1841 ;
Revis. Gen. Pl 2: 668 Kuntze 1891 as Humboldtia sicaria;
Symbolae Antillanae Vol VI Orchidaceae Urban 1909;
Die Orchideen der Sudamerikanischen Kordillerenstaaten III Ecuador Schlechter 1921 as P wolfiana;
Schedul. Orch. 5: 14-17, f. 3 Ames 1923 as Pleurothallis alpina drawing fide;
The Orchids of Panama L.O. Williams & P Allen 1946 as P alpina drawing fide;
AOS Bulletin Vol 27 No 6 1958;
Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated Vol 1 Dunsterville & Garay 1959 drawing good;
Native Orchids of Trinidad Schultes 1960;
AOS Bulletin Vol 38 No 6 1969;
Flora de Venezuela Foldats Volumen XV Part 2 1970 drawing fide;
Orchids of Venezuela, An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 3 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 drawing good;
Orquideologia Vol 16 No 1 1983;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol III Systematics of Pleurothallis Luer 1986;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol III Systematics of Pleurothallis Luer 1986 drawing of P alpina fide;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol III Systematics of Pleurothallis Luer 1986;
Native Colombian Orchids Vol 3 COS 1991 photo fide;
Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 3 Ramiro and Carnevali 2000 drawing good;
Orchids of Bolivia Vasquez & Ibisch Vol 1 2000 drawing good no hair on lip;
Lindleyana Vol 16 No 4:246 Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001 as Acianthera alpina;
Lindleyana Vol 16 No 4:246 Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001 as Acianthera sicaria;
Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica Vol 3 Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003;
Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 4 Dodson 2003 photo fide;
Orquideas Nativas del Tachira Cesar Fernandez 2003 photo hmm;
Vanishing Beauty, Native Costa Rican Orchids Vol 1 Pupulin 2005 as Acianthera sicaria photos ok? [mine have shorter, pilose lip];
Orquideas de la Serrania del Baudo Misas Urreta 2006 drawing/photo ok;
Orchid Species of Peru Zelenko Bermudez 2009 photo fide as Acianthera sicaria;
Orchids of Costa Rica Vol 5 Morales 2009 photo fide; Orquideas del Valle de Aburra Medellin Colombia Orqidelogia 2014 photo fide;
Anales Jard. Bot. Madrid 75(1)e069: 13 2018 A taxonomic synopsis of Acianthera (Orchidaceae: Pleurothallidinae) in Peru, including two new species Damian, Chiron and Mitidieri 2018 as Acianthera sicaria photo fide;
Lankesteriana 19(1). 31-55 2019 as Acianthera sicaria photo fide;
Pleurothallids Neotropical Jewels Vol 1 Karremans & Viera 2020 as Acianthera sicaria photo fide;
Orquideas de Farallones de Cali Galindo-Tarazona, Haelterman, Zuluaga Trochez and Sebastian Moreno 2020 as Acianthera sicaria photo fide
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
