Pleurothallis alvaroi Luer & R. Escobar 1981 SUBGENUS Pleurothallis SECTION Pleurothallis SUBSECTION Acroniae SERIES Acroniae Luer 1988
Photo by © Jay Pfahl
Photo by Andreas Philipp
Photo by Eric Hunt, plant grown by the San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers.
TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website
Common Name Alvaro Mejia's Pleurothallis [Colombian orchid grower]
Flower Size .4" [1 cm]
Found in Antioquia department on the central cordillera of Colombia near Medellin as a small sized, cool to cold growing, caespitose to shortly repent epiphyte at elevations around 2000 meters with stout, erect ramicauls enveloped basally by 2 to 3 tubular sheaths with another below the middle carrying an erect, coriaceous, ovate, acute, lightly acuminate leaf with a sessile base and broadly cuneate that blooms in the spring in cultivation on an erect-arching, subtended by a reclining spathe loose, distichous, 5.5 to 6" [14 to 20 cm] long, simultaneously opening, several flowered inflorescence with infundibular, thin, much shorter than the pedicel floral bracts.
"Distinguished by the large, sessile, ovate leaf borne by a well developed ramicaul and a loose raceme of relatively large flowers. The color varies from yellow to purple. It is similar to P supervacanea both vegetatively and florally but is distinguished by the broader, narrowly obtuse sepalas, broader petals and an ovate lip with a pair of small, central calli instead of intrmarginal calli of the lateral lobes and without the transverse callus above the base." Luer 1998
Synonyms Acronia alvaroi (Luer & R.Escobar) Luer 2005
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
Orquideologia Vol 14 #2 Luer & Escobar 1981 drawing fide to Pfahl photo;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol III Systematics of Pleurothallis Luer 1986;
Native Colombian Orchids Vol 3 COS 1991 photo fide to the Hunt photo;
Orquideologia Vol 24 #1 2005 photo ok;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVII Dryadella Acronia section Macrophyllae-Fasciculatae Luer 2005 as Acronia alvaroi;
Orquideas del Valle de Aburra Medellin Colombia Orqidelogia 2014 photo fide to the phillip photo
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