Platystele brenneri Luer 1976 SUBGENUS Platystele
Photo by © Andreas Kaye and his Flickr Orchid Photo Website
TYPE drawing by © Carl Luer and Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website
Common Name Brenner's Platystele [American Orchid Enthusiast in Ecuador current]
Flower Size 1/4" [7mm]
Found in Darien province of Panama and Pastaza province of Ecuador in rainforests at elevations of 400 to 1000 meters as a mini-miniature sized, hot to warm growing epiphyte with suberect, slender ramicauls enveloped by 2 to 3, thin, ribbed, imbricating sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical-obovate, obtuse, apiculate apically, narrowing and cuneate below into the subpetiolate base leaf that blooms in the fall on an erect, arising laterally from the ramicaul, peduncle filiform, .16 to .4" [4 to 10 mm] long, congested, .25 to 4" [7 to 10 mm] long including the .16 to .4" [4 to 10 mm] long peduncle, successively single, several flowered inflorescence with thin,shorter than the pedicel floral bracts and holding the flowers well above the leaves.
"This minute species is characterized by its tiny clump of obovate leaves and a hair-like peduncle bearing a few successive, comparatively large flowers. The long-caudate sepals are yellow with a red mid-vein. The dorsal sepal is considerably longer than the other floral parts. The red lip also has an attenuated apex. Platystele brenneri is similar to P johnstonii , from Venezuela, characterized by an exceedingly long dorsal sepal, but the latter is repent instead of caespitose, and the lip is acuminate-obtuse instead of attenuate-acute. It is most similar to the larger P. caudatisepala from which it may also be distinguished by the sharply acuminate lip." Luer 1976
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Selbyana Vol 3 24 Luer 1976 Drawing fide; Orchids of Venezuela, An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 3 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 drawing fide; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 204 Dodson 1980 drawing good; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol VII Systematics of Platystele Luer 1990 drawing fide; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 4 Dodson 2003 drawing fide; Orquideas de la Serrania del Baudo Misas Urreta 2006 drawing/photo fide;
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