Pleurothallis candida Luer & Hirtz 1999 SUBGENUS Acuminatia SECTION Acuminatae Luer 1986
TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website
Common Name The White Pleurothallis
Flower Size .2” [5mm]
Found in Puno department of Peru at elevations of 2350 to 3400 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cold growing, caespitose epiphyte with slender, erect ramicauls with 2 to 3, blackish, tubular sheaths below the middle and at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, subacute to obtuse apically, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the spring on a congested, arising through a narrow spathe from an annulus situated below the apex of the ramicaul, secund, 2.4 to 4.4” [6 to 11 cm] long including the .8 to 1.2” [2 to 3 cm] long, peduncle, simultaneously many flowered inflorescence with shorter than the ovary floral bracts.
Similar to P acuminata but is distinguished by the congested, secund inflorescence of white flowers with oblong, obtuse sepals that are not acuminate and the erect sides and the midline callus of the lip.
Synonyms Anathallis candida (Luer & Hirtz) Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001; Specklinia candida (Luer & Hirtz) Luer 2004; Stelis candida (Luer & Hirtz) Karremans 2014
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
Lindleyana Vol 12 No1 pg 46 march 1997
Lindleyana Vol 16/4:248 Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001 as Anathallis candida;
Macchu Picchu Orchids Eric Christenson 2003;
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 Specklinia candida;
LANKESTERIANA 13(3): 328 Kerremans 2014 as Stelis candida
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