Pleurothallis calypso Luer 1980 SUBGENUS Acianthera [Scheidw.] Luer 1986
Photos by Ecuagenera and their Ecuador Orchid Website
TYPE Drawing by Carl Luer
Common Name or Meaning The Calypso Pleurothallis [refers the nymph Calypso who hid Ulysses, an allusion to the hidden flower]
Flower Size .2" [5 mm]
Found in Zamora-Chinchipe province of Ecuador and Peru at elevations around 1250 to 2000 meters as a small sized, cool growing, pendant, repent epiphyte with stout ramicauls enveloped basally by 2 inflated, compressed sheaths and carrying a single, apical, pendant, thinly coriaceous, elliptical, acute to subacute, cuneate into the sessile base leaf that blooms in the spring on a slender, enveloped completely by a large inflated, foliaceous spathe hiding the flower within, .05" [1 mm] long, single flowered inflorescence with a longer than the pubescentovary floral bract..
"Characterized by the overlapping leaves in hanging shains up to 40" [one meter] long. The rhizomes and ramicauls are clothed in loose, imbricating sheaths. The large, similarily appearing spathe is inflated, enclosing the peduncle witha single, purplish flower. The sepals are fleshy, pubescent and connate basally. The petals are obovate and the lip is oblong with erect, lobe-like sides and fringed at the apex." Luer 2007
Synonyms Acianthera calypso (Luer) Karremans & Rinc.-González 2015; Apoda-prorepentia calypso (Luer) Luer 2004
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Phytologia 46: 358 Luer 1980
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol III Systematics of Pleurothallis Luer 1986
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol III Systematics of Pleurothallis Luer 1986 drawing fide;
Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 4 Dodson 2003 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 Apoda-prorepentia calypso;
Icones Pleurothallidinae Vol XXIX A Third Century of Stelis Systematics of Apoda-Repnetia Vol XXIX Luer 2007 drawing fide;
Orchid Species of Peru Zelenko & Bermudez 2009 photo fide;
Pleurothallids Neotropical Jewels Vol 1 Karremans & Viera 2020 as Acianthera calypso photo fide
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