Pleurothallis cauliflora Lindl. 1837
SUBGENUS Crocodeilanthe [Rchb.f & Warsc.]Luer 1986
Drawing by © Carl Luer and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website
Drawing by Hooker and The Plant Illustration Website
Common Name The Flowering Stem Pleurothallis [refers to the short pedicellate flowers largely engulfed by an inflated floral bract adpressed to the rachis]
Flower Size .12" [3mm]
Found in Pichincha province of Ecuador at elevations of 2500 to 3400 meters as a small to medium sized, cold growing, caesitose epiphyte with fasciculate, stout, erect ramicauls enveloped by a loose, tubular sheath near the middle and 2 to 3 loose, imbricating sheaths at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, broadly elliptical-ovate, obtuse, rounded below and contracted into the slender, petiolate base leaf that blooms in the fall on 1 to 2, stout, more or less secund, arising through a foliaceous spathe from an annulus set below the abscission layer, 6 to 10" [15 to 25 cm] long including the 1.6 to 2.8" [4 to 7 cm] long peduncle, densely and simultaneously many flowered inflorescence with an an inflated, expanded floral bract that completely envelopes the pedicel, ovary and much of the flower.
Although the ramicauls are enveloped by large, loose sheaths and similar to P roseopunctatum and P galeata this species with its broadly elliptical, obtuse, long petiolate base leaf with the elongate foliaceous spathe is distinctive.
Synonyms Crocodeilanthe cauliflora (Lindl.) Luer 2004; Humboltia cauliflora (Lindl.) Kuntze 1891; Pleurothallis exotica Luer 1976; Stelis cauliflora (Lindl.) Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
Selbyana 3: 104 Luer 1976 as P exotica drawing fide;
Icones Pleurothallidianrum Vol III Systemics of Pleurothallis Luer 1986;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XVI Systemics of Pleurothallis SUBGEN Crocodeilanthe, Rhynchopera and Talpinaria Luer 1998 drawing fide;
Lindleyana Vol 16 No 4 2001 as Stelis cauliflora;
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 Crocodeilanthe cauliflora
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