Pleurothallis avirostris Luer & Hirtz 1998 SUBGENUS Crocodeilanthe [Rchb.f & Warsc.]Luer 1986
TYPE drawing by © by Carl Luer and The Epidendra Website
Common Name or Meaning The Birds Beak Pleurothallis [refers to the lip shape]
Flower Size .2" [1cm]
Found in Chimboraza province of Ecuador in montane cloud forests elevations around 3600 meters as a miniature sized, cold growing, caespitose epiphyte with fasciculate, stout, erect ramicauls with a loose, tubular sheath near the middle and 3 to 4, imbricating, tubular sheaths at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, subacute to obtuse, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the spring on an erect, arising through a slender spathe with an annulus, 9.2" [ 23 cm] long, single, secund, densely, simultaneously many flowered inflorescence with as long as to longer than the ovary floral bract.
"Closely related to the lower elevation P jamiesonii and the most distinguishing difference is the transversely rhombic, anterior lobe that is broader than the lower portion occupied by the erect lateral lobes. The central portion of the anterior lobe is minutely verrucose. The erect lateral lobes are very thickened with rounded calli on both surfaces and an additional, small, conical callus on each side near the base within. The lobes cannot be spread without fracturing the lip." Luer 1998
Synonyms Crocodeilanthe avirostris (Luer & Hirtz) Luer 2004; Stelis avirostris (Luer & Hirtz) Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001;
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XVI Systemics of Pleurothallis SUBGEN Crocodeilanthe, Rhynchopera and Talpinaria Luer 1998 drawing fide;
Lindleyana Vol 16 No 4:261 Pridgeon & Chase2001 as Stelis avirostris;
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 avirostris;
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