Platystele johnstonii (Ames) Garay 1968
Photo © by G C K Dunsterville
Photo by © Ecuagenera and their Ecuadorian Orchid Website
Drawing by Carl Luer
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Common Name Johnston's Platystele [American Orchid Enthusiast and discoverer of species 1900's]
Flower Size .2" [5 mm]
Found in Venezuela at elevations of 500 to 900 meters as a mini-miniature sized, warm growing epiphyte with suberect ramicauls enveloped by 2 to 3, thin, imbricating sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, ellitpical, obtuse, notched and apiculate apically, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the spring through mid summer on an erect, filiform, .28 to .36" [7 to 9 mm] long including the [5 to 7 mm long peduncle, loose, successively few flowered inflorescence arising laterally from the ramicaul.
The first photo by Dunsterville is absolutely correct, the second flower photo from Ecuagenera may be P brenneri.
Closely related to the smaller, more caespitose, Panama and Ecuador occuring P brenneri but it has a tapering dorsal sepal. P johnstonii has a clavate apex to the dorsal sepal and occurs only in Venezuela.
Synonyms *Pleurothallis johnstonii Ames 1908
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Studies in the Family Orchidaceae Fascile 2 Ames 1908 as Pleurothallis johnstonii; *Studies in the Family Orchidaceae Vol 3 pg 8 Ames 1908 as Pleurothallis johnstonii drawing fide; Flora de Venezuela Volumen 15 Parte 2 Foldats 1970 as Pleuorthallis johnstonii drawing fide; Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated Vol 5 Dunsterville & Garay 1975 drawing fide; Orchids of Venezuela, An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 3 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol VII Systematics of Platystele Luer 1990 drawing fide; Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 3 Ramiro and Carnevali 2000 drawing fide; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 4 Dodson 2003 photo fide
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