Pelexia maculata Rolfe 1893 SECTION Pelexia
Photos by © of Christian Gegenbauer
Drawing by © M Cauch-sousa B./Bennett & Christenson 1993
Common Name The Spotted Pelexia [refers to the leaves]
Flower Size .2" [5 mm]
Found in Junin department of Peru in wet montane forests along streams at elevations around 600 meters as a small sized, warm growing terrestrial with 3 to 4, broadly elliptic, very slightly oblique, leathery, dark petroleum green with yellowish white spots above, deep purple beneath, acute, cuneate-rounded into the erect, 6" [15 cm] long, petiolate base leaves that blooms in the fall on a terminal, erect, peduncle 12" [30 cm] long, light pinkish brown enveloped completely by tight, acuminate, light pinkish brown bracts, rachis 5 cm] long, pubescent, several to many flowered inflorescence with long acuminate, light pinkish brown, as long as the flower floral bracts and carrying white tipped flowers.
Often cited as a synonym of Pelexia laxa but I feel that it warrants separation, differs mostly in the broadly ellliptic leaves, the oblanceolate lateral sepals and the more pronouned helmut formed by the dorsal sepal and the connivent petals.
Synonyms Pelexia decora (Garay) Garay 1980 publ. 1982; Spiranthes decora Garay 1956; *Spiranthes maculata (Rolfe) C.Schweinf. 1941;
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Bull. Misc. Inform. Kew 1893: 7 Rolfe 1893
Die Orchideen: 111 Schlechter 1915;
Bot. Mus. Leafl. 10: 30 C Schweinf. 1941 as Spiranthes maculata
Flora Brasilica Fasc 8 Vol XII II 13-43: 242 Orchidaceae Hoehne 1945;
Flora Brasilica Fasc 8 Vol XII II 13-43: Tab 128 Orchidaceae Illustrations Hoehne 1945 drawing good;
Iconografia de Orchidaceae Do Brasil Hoehne 1949 drawing good;
Canad. J. Bot. 34: 248 Garay 1956 as Spiranthes decora
AOS Bulletin Vol 31 #8: 629 1962 as Spiranthes maculata photo good;
Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965 drawing ok;
Orchidaceae Brasilenses Band 1: 282 #456 Pabst & Dungs 1975 good;
Bot. Mus. Leafl. 28: 343 Garay 1980 publ. 1982 as Pelexia decora
The Manual Of Cultivated Orchid Species Bechtel, Cribb & Launert 1992 drawing good;
Icones Orchidacearum Peruviarum Plate 149 Bennett & Christenson 1993 drawing fide;
Orchids of The Brazilian Central Plateau Menezes 2004 photo ok;
AOS Bulletin Vol 86 #8 2017 as P laxa photo fide;
Materials to the Orchid Flora of Colombia Vol 2: 338 Szlachetko & Kolanowska 2019
Materials to the Orchid Flora of Colombia Vol 2: 3398 Szlachetko & Kolanowska 2019 drawing hmm
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
