Pleurothallis alabidentata [Sambin & Aucourd] in ed. SUBGENUS Specklinia SECTION Hymenodanthae SUBSECTION Apodae-Caespitosae [Lindl.]Luer 1986

Photos by Aurélien Sambin/TYPE Drawing by © Marie Aucourd and Richardiana, N.S. 5: 245 Sambin & Aucourd 2021

EARLIER

Common Name The Bidentate Lateral Wing Pleurothallis [refers to the lateral wings of the column bidentate at the apex.]

Flower Size .08" [2 mm]

Found in French Guiana in low rainforests at elevations around 60 to 250 meters as a mini-miniature sized, hot growing, caespitose epiphyte with short, cylindrical ramicauls provided with 2 to 3 papery sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous on the ventral surface, fleshy, subsucculent, discreetely hairy on both surfaces, apiculate apically, linear to somewhat elliptical, hirsute margin very slightly curved, microscopically cilate, sulcate and cylinrical pseudopetiolate base leaf that blooms in the winter, spring and earlier summer on a pendent, peduncle .6 to 1.2" [1.5 to 3 cm] long, provided with 2 infundibular, distant from the base bracts, rachis subfasiculate, longer than the leaf, .28 to .6" [7 to 13 mm] long, successively single to 3 flowered inflorescence with an infundibular, subquadrangular, acute, much shorter than the pedicel floral bracts.

Similar to P glandulosa, P vittariifolia and P. alajuelensis but differs from all in the hirsute margins of the leaf vs glabrous, the pendent inflorescence vs erect, the 2 sterile bracts on the peduncle vs one, the truncate, emarginate lip vs rotund and the column with 2 lateral wings with bidentate apices vs narrow and single dentate.

Synonyms *Specklinia acutidentata (Cogn.) Luer 2004

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

* Richardiana, N.S. 5: 245 Sambin & Aucourd 2021 as Specklinia alabidentata

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