Pleurothallis amentacea Luer & Toscano 2018 SUBGENUS Pleurothallis SECTION Pleurothallis SUBSECTION Longiracemosae [Luer] Luer 1998

TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer

Common Name The Pussy Willow-Like Pleurothallis [refers to the overall appearance of the inflorescence]

Flower Size .02" [1 mm]

Found in Santa Cruz department of Bolivia at elevations around 2900 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cold growing, caespitose epiphyte with erect, slender ramicauls enveloped by a tubular sheath below the middle and 2 below and at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptic, acute, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the spring on 3 to 4, erect, distichous, peduncle to .2" [5 mm] long, 1.6 to 2.4" [3 to 4 cm] long overall, arising from a node below the apex of the ramicaul, congested, many flowered inflorescence with oblique, acute, as long as the ovary floral bracts.

"This species of SUBGENUS Pleurothallis SECTION Pleurothallis SUBSECTION Longiracemosae [Luer] Luer 1998 Pleurothallis divaricans Schltr. and Pleurothallis univervia Luer & Dodson, this new species does indeed resemble a Stelis but the morphology of sepals, petals, lip and column readily exclude Stelis. The flowers are distinct with fleshy, convex sepals; minute, oblong petals that are concave at the apex; and an ovate, featureless lip. The flowers are non-expanding and borne erect from within equally large floral bracts, giving the appearance of the catkins of a minute pussy willow." Luer & Toscano 2018

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

* Harvard Papers in Botany Vol. 23, No. 1, pp. 47–51 Luer & Toscano 2018 drawing fide,

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