Platystele obtecta Luer 1994 Drawing by © Carl Luer The Epidendra Website

Common Name The Covered Platystele [refers to the inflorescence which just barely arises above the basal sheaths]

Flower Size .08" " [2mm]

Found in the Guanacaste coast of Costa Rica in primary forests at elevations around 600 meters as a miniature sized, hot to warm growing epiphyte with erect, short, ramicauls enveloped basally by 2 to 3 loose, ribbed, tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, rounded apically, gradually narrowing below into the cuneate petiolate base leaf that blooms in the summer on a congested, .08" [2 mm] long including the peduncle, simultaneously 2 to 3 flowered inflorescence arising laterally from the ramicaul and has thin floral bracts.

"This species is related to the frequent and widely distributed P. stenostachya with similarly minute flowers and an elliptical, diffusely glandular lip. Platystele obtecta is distinguished by the broader, petiolate leaves, and an extremely abbreviated inflorescence that produces tiny racemes of what appear to have been dark purple flowers. The racemes are hidden within the loose sheaths of the ramicauls that will not be found unless a careful search is carried out." Luer 1994

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XI Systematics of Lepanthes Subgenus Brachycladium and Pleurothallis Subgenus Aenigma, Subgenus Elongata and Subgenus Kranzlinella Luer 1994 Drawing fide; Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica Vol 3 Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003;

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