Pleurothallis appendiculata Cogn. 1912 SUBGENUS Antilla Luer 2000
Photos by © Linda & Mikael Karlbom
Drawing by Carl Luer
Common Name The Appendaged Pleurothallis
Flower Size .4" [1 cm]
Found in the Cuba, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico at elevations around 1400 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cool growing, caespitose epiphyte with ascending to pendent, distinctly sulcate ramciauls enveloped by 3, scarious, apically oblique and carinate sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, narrowly ovate to elliptic, acute to subacuminate, green, glabrous, cuneate to attenuate below into the base leaf that blooms in the spring on to 6, arising through a spathe at the base of the leaf, terminal, pendent, 2" [5 cm] long, 2 to 6 flowered inflorescence with oblique almost as long as the ovary floral bracts.
The only member of the SUBGENUS Antilla on all three of the larger islands of the Caribbean and has no close relatives. The small, elliptical leavse, acute at both ends are borne by equally long ramicauls. Two to three dark red, gaping flowers are often borne simultaneously in a pendent, loose, remarkedly flexuous raceme. The dorsal sepal is narrowly obovate, the synsepal is ovate and concave towards the base and the petals are elliptical subfalcate. The lip is irregularily oblong with erect, rounded lobes below the middle with deflexed, rounded margins above the middle, the apex is rounded and a transverse callus is present above the base." Luer 2000
Synonyms Acianthera alphonsii Kutz 2018; Acianthera appendiculata (Cogn.) A.Doucette 2016; Antilla appendiculata (Cogn.) Luer 2004
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
in Urban, Symb. Antill. 7: 174 Cogniaux 1912;
An Orchid Flora Of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands Ackerman 1995;
Orchidaceae Antillanae Nir 2000;
Systematics and evolution of the genus Pleurothallis R. Br. (Orchidaceae) in the Greater Antilles Hagen Stenzel 2004 Drawing fide;
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 Antilla appendiculata;
Orchid Flora of the Greater Antilles Ackerman 2014 drawing fide;
Orchid Bull Vol 87[5]:308 2018 as Acianthera alphonsii; drawing fide;
Pleurothallids Neotropical Jewels Vol 1 Karremans & Viera 2020 as Acianthera appendiculata photo fide
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
