Platystele bovilinguis Luer 1995

TYPE drawing by Carl Luer

LATE EARLY

Common Name The Cow's Tongue Platystele

Flower Size .1" [2.5 mm]

Found in Bolivia without locality as a mini-miniature sized caespitose epiphyte with erect, slender ramicauls enveloped by 2 thin, tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, narrowly obovate, subacute to obtuse, narrowly cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the late fall and early winter on an erect, peduncle .16 to .24" [.4 to .6 cm] long, subtended by a spathe .12 to .16" [3 to 4 mm] long, laterally from the ramicaul, rachis .08" [.2 cm] long, congested, successively single, several flowered flowered inflorescence with thin, much shorter than the ovary floral bracts and carrying transluscent pale yellow, glabrous sepals, pale yellow, membraneous petals and a heavily suffused and marked with black, minutely ciliate, pubescent towards the base lip.

"This little species is distinguished by the tiny brush shaped raceme, short and congested with long pedicels that is borne by a short peduncle, no higher than the petiolar of the leaf. The dorsal sepal is concave with the apex rounded and apiculate. The lateral sepals are ovate and spreading and the petals are elliptical and acute, The most distinguishing feature is the black, boat-shaped lip that curves up into the broadly dilated column above, much like a cows tongue seeks the nares above." Luer 2002

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXII Systematics of Brachionidium Luer 1995 Drawing fide

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