Microchilus ruizteranii Ormerod 2008

TYPE Drawing of Kreodanthus rotundifolius by Paul Ormerod and Harvard Pap. Bot. 9: 393 fig 4 Ormerod 2005

Full Shade CoolLATE Summer Fall

Common Name RuízTeran's Microchilus [L. RuízTeran, Venezuelan botanical explorer and pharmacist and Co collector of the type later 1900's

Flower Size

Found in Amazonas department of Peru under dense undergrowth in moderately dense fore at elevations of 1860 to 2000 meters as a miniature to small sized, cool growing terrestrial with a terete rhizome giving rise to an erect, terete stem carrying 3 to 4, rosulate, suborbicular, acute, margins undulate, velvety dark green above, matte midgreen below, petiolate base leaves that blooms in the late summer and early fall on an erect, terminal, pubescent, 10.2" [25.5 cm] long, peduncle 6" [15 cm] long, provided with 2, scattered, acute sheathing bracts, rachis 4.2" [10.5 cm] long, laxly 14 flowered inflorescence with ovate-lanceolate, acute, just shorter than the the ovary floral bracts and carrying sparsely externally pubescent flowers with the sepals mid yellow-green, a lip with white at the tip and yellow green below.

"This species is closely related to its Venezuelan congener M. ruizteranii but it has a laxly (not subdensely) flowered inflorescence, flowers with narrower (.058 versus .074" [1.45 vs. 1.85 mm]) petals, a broadly elliptic (not subquadrate) labellum hypochile, obliquely obovate (not oblong-obovate) epichile lobules, and a longer (.011" versus .096" [2.75 vs. 2.40 mm]) column. The plant misidentified as Erythrodes ovata (Lindl.) Ames in Dunsterville and Garay (1965), is from the same Venezuelan State and altitude as M. ruizteranii. However, the former entity differs from M. ruizteranii in having nar- rower (1.2 vs. 1.85 mm) oblong-ligulate (not obliquely oblong-obovate) petals that are acute and truncate (not obtuse and sublobulate). It is probably an undescribed species but I have not seen any material o. Ormerod 2008

Synonyms Aspidogyne rotundifolia (Ormerod) Ormerod 2008; *Kreodanthus rotundifolius Ormerod 2005

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

* Harvard Pap. Bot. 9: 394 Ormerod 2005 as Kreodanthus rotundifolius;

Harvard Pap. Bot. 9: 393 fig 4 Ormerod 2005 as Kreoidanthus rotundifolius drawing fide;

Harvard Pap. Bot. 13: 58 Ormerod 2008;

* Bot. J. Linn. Soc. 197: 343 E.C.Smidt & M.W.Chase 2021

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