Pleurothallis aligera Luer & R.Vásquez 1997 publ. 1998 SUBGENUS Crocodeilanthe [Rchb.f & Warsc.]Luer 1986
TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website
Common Name The Wing Bearing Pleurothallis [refers to the lobes of the lip]
Flower Size .12" [3 mm]
Found in Cochabamba department of Bolivia at elevations around 2500 meters as a small to medium sized, cold growing, densely caespitose epiphyte with stout, erect ramicauls enveloped by a loose tubular sheath near the middle and 2 to 3, loose, imbricating sheaths at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, purple suffused, beneath, elliptical, obtuse, broadly cuneate below into the sessile-subpetiolate base leaf that blooms in the summer on a few, arising through a conspicuous spathe from an annulus below the abscission layer, simultaneous, more or less secund, [3.2 to 4.8" [8 to 12 cm] long, densely simultaneously many flowered inflorescence with shorter than the ovary floral bracts.
"This robust species occurs on the northern slope of the Andes of central Bolivia. It is most similar to the Peruvian P vargasii but the new species is distinguished by the large habit with a large, shortly petiolate base leaf and a conspicuous spathe from which the few racemes about as long as the leaf emerge. The flowers are similar to those of P vargasii but with single veined petals and erect, much longer, wing-like lobes of the lip." Luer 1998
Synonyms Crocodeilanthe aligera (Luer & R.Vásquez) Luer 2004; Stelis aligera (Luer & R.Vásquez) Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Revista de la Sociedad Boliviana de Botanica 1[2]: 9-19 Luer 1997 drawing fide;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XVI Systematics of Pleurothallis SUBGEN Crocodeilanthe, Rhynchopera and Talpinaria Luer 1998 drawing fide;
Orchids of Bolivia Vol 1 Pleurothallidinae Vasquez & Ibisch 2000 drawing fide;
Lindleyana Vol 16 No 4:261 Pridgeon & Chase 2001 as Stelis aligera;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVI Pleurothallis subgenus Acianthera and Three Allied subgenera, A Second Century of new Species of Stelis of Ecuador, Epibator, Ophidion and Zootrophion Luer 2004 as Crocodeilanthe aligera;
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------