Myoxanthus priapus Luer 1983 SUBGENUS Myoxanthus SECTION Antennella Luer 1992

Photo by © Alexander Hirtz

TYPE Drawing TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website

LATE THROUGH MID

Common Name The Priapus Myoxanthus [greek god of reproduction an allusion to the erect callus at the base of the lip]

Flower Size .2" [.5 cm]

Found in Ecuador and Peru in cloud forests at elevations of 2000 to 2900 meters as a small sized, cold growing shortly repent to caespitose epiphyte with an erect, slender ramicaul enveloped by 6 to 7 tubular, hispidulous sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, narrowly elliptical, acute, narrowly cuneate below into the sub-petiolate base leaf that blooms in the late summer through mid winter on a fascile of .12 to .16" [3 to 4 mm] long, enveloped by pubescent sheaths, successive 1 to 3, several flowered inflorescence with pubescent, as long to loner than the pedicel florla bracts.

"Most similar to Myoxanthus georgei from much lower elevations, but M priapus is distinguished from all others by the erect callus at the base of the lip." Luer 1992

"Myoxanthus priapus is similar to Myoxanthus ortizianus with which it shares the purple-yellowish flowers covered abaxially by short trichomes with the lateral sepals forming a suborbicular synsepal and petals yellowish purple stripped, obovate to oblong basally, then contracted and lip with a thick erect callus near the base. It can be distinguished by the basal half of the petals oblong to obovate then narrow vs. apex of the petals narrower forming a slender tail and an oblong lip with small acute lateral lobes near the middle vs. lip weakly trilobed with rounded lateral lobes below the middle."

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol IX Systematics of Myoxanthus Luer 1992 Drawing fide; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 3 Dodson 2002 photo fide; A taxonomic synopsis and morphological characterization of Myoxanthus (Orchidaceae: Pleurothallidinae) Gustavo Rojas-Alvarado, Mario A. Blanco, A. P. Karremans 2021 Photo fide

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