Pleurothallis angustifolia Lindl. 1836 SUBGENUS Acianthera [Scheidw.] Luer 1986
Photo by © Byron Rinke.
Photo courtesy of Noble Bashor.
Drawing by Carl Luer
LATER
Common Name The Thin Leafed Pleurothallis
Flower Size 1/5" [5 mm]
Found in Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras and Nicaragua in wet montane forests at elevations of 365 to 2000 meters, along streams on dry mossy trees as a miniature sized, hot to cool growing, long-repent epiphyte with a creeping rhizome with well spaced, ascending ramicauls carrying a single, apical, reddish, fleshy-coriaceous, lanceolate, acute and tridentate apically leaf that blooms in the later summer and fall on an apical, short to 1/2" [1.25 cm] long, pendulous, fasciculcate single to three flowered inflorescence with as long as the ovary floral bracts and holding the flowers close to the leaf.
Good distinguishing factors for this species are small plant with creeping rhizome with well spaced ramicauls carrying a lanceolate leaf and has a bicallose lip indicated by the arrows in the second photo, with two lateral lobules at the base.
CAUTION !!! P wilsonii is similar to and often relegated to being a synonym of P angustifolia. P wilsonii has a wider synsepal and a wider, apically rounded lip while P angustifolia has a narrower synsepal and a narrower lip with an obtuse apex.
Synonyms Acianthera angustifolia (Lindl.) Luer 2007; Humboldtia angustifolia (Lindl.) Kuntze 1891; Pleurothallis carioi Schltr. 1918;
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Edwards's Bot. Reg. 21: t. 1797 Lindley 1835;
Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 15: 205 Schlechter 1918 as P carioi;
Orchids of Guatemala and Belize Ames & Correll 1952 as P carioi;
Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 1087 Dodson 1984 as Pleurothallis carioi drawing fide;
Orchids of Mexico Hagsater, Soto, Salazar, Jimenez Lopez & Dressler 2005 as Acianthera angustifolia;
Icones Pleurothallidianrum Vol XXIX A Third Century of Stelis of Ecuador Systematics of Apoda-Prorepentia Luer 2007as Acianthera angustifolia;
Orchid Flora of the Greater Antilles Ackerman 2014 as P angustifolia not = P wilsonii;
Diversity of Pleurothallidinae in Guatemala: An Endangered Orchid Subtribe with High Economic and Horticultural Potentials Edgar Mo Mo, Cetzal, Basu and Vega 2017 as Acianthera angustifolia photo fide;
Orchid Genera and Species in Guatemala Archila, Szlachchetko, Chiron, Lipinska, Mystkowska and Bertolini 2018 as Acianthera angustifolia;
Pleurothallids Neotropical Jewels Vol 1 Karremans & Viera 2020 as Acianthera angustifolia photo fide;
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