Pleurothallis capitonis Luer & R.Escobar 1996 SUBGENUS Pleurothallis SECTION Pleurothallis SUBSECTION Macrophyllae-Racemosae [Lindl] Luer 1986
TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer and The Epidendra Website
Common Name The Big Head Pleurothallis [refers to the large size of the single flower]
Flower Size .4" [1 cm]
Found in Santander, Cundinamarca and Nariño departments of Colombia and Tungurahua province of Ecuador in cloud forests at elevations of 2150 to 3100 meters as a small to large sized, cold growing, caespitose epiphyte with stout, erect ramciauls enveloped by a tubular sheath near the middle and 2 to 3 others at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, narrowly elliptical-obovate, acute, acuminate, narrowly cuneate below into the subpetiolate base leaf that blooms in the winter through spring on a pendent, slender, arcuate, .6" [1.5 cm] long, single to loose, successively 2, single flowered inflorescence arising through a spathe at the apex of the ramicaul with a shorter than the pedicel floral bract .
"Distinguished by the long ramicauls carrying a long, acute, narrowly elliptical-obovate, more or less petiolate base leaf that blooms on a large, pendent, purple spotted flower produced one or two at a time by a slender peduncle about .6" [1.5 cm] long, The dorsal sepal is 5 veined, the synsepal is 10 veined and the petals are 6 veined. The lip is broadly U-shaped, acutely deflexed and the basal lobes have revolute margins." Luer 1999
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Orquideología 20: 44. Luer & R. Escobar 1996 Drawing fide;
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