Pleurothallis bucranon Luer & Hirtz 1988 SUBGENUS Pleurothallis SECTION Pleurothallis SUBSECTION Acroniae SERIES Amphygiae Luer 1998
Photo by © Marco F Monteros and his The Flickr Orchid Photo Website
Photo by © Andreas Kay and his The Flickr Orchid Photo Website
TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer
Common Name The Cow Skull Pleurothallis [refers to the general lip shape]
Flower Size .4" [1 cm]
Found in Imbabura province of Ecuador in wet forests at elevations around 1250 meters as a mini-miniature to miniture sized, cool growing, caespitose epiphyte with very slender, erect, ramicauls enveloped by a close tubular sheath at the base and carrying a single, apical, subspreading, coriaceous, ovate, acute, shallowly cordate into the sessile base leaf that blooms in the summer on areclining, arising through a spathe at the base of the leaf, a fascile of .16 to .2" [4 to 5 mm] long, successively single, few flowered inflorescence with somewhat shorter than the pedicel floral bract.
"Similar to P forceps-cancri but P bucranon differs in the less acuminate apices of the petals and especially the trilobed lip, [making the outline of a cow's skull and horns], markedky deflexed near the middle, verrucose above the middle, with the lateral lobes being narrowly falcate." Luer 1998
Synonyms Acronia bucranon (Luer & Hirtz) Luer 2005
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Lindleyana 3:134, 1988 drawing fide;
Native Orchids of Ecuador Vol 4 Dodson 2003 drawing fide;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVII Dryadella and Acronia Section Macrophyllae-Fasciculatae Luer 2005 as Acronia bucranon;
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
