Pleurothallis cerberus Luer & R.Vásquez 1980 SUBGENUS Acianthera [Scheidw.] Luer 1986
Drawing by Carl Luer and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website
Common Name The Cerberus Pleurothallis [refers to mythological, three headed, dog-like monster]
Flower Size .4" [1 cm]
Found in La Paz department of Bolivia at elevations of 1800 to 2200 meters as a small sized, cool to cold growing, shortly repent epiphyte with erect, stout, sharply compressed and sulcate above ramicauls enveloped by a tubular sheath above the base and 2 to 3 sheaths at the base and carrying a single, apical erect, thickly coriaceous, elliptical, obtuse to subacute, cuneate below into the sessile base leaf that blooms in the summer on 1 to 2, arising through a spathe at the base of the leaf, congested, distichous, .6" [1.5 cm] long including the .4" [1 cm] long, peduncle, simultaneously 2 to 4 flowered inflorescence with, white, tubular, oblique, shorter to as long as the ovary floral bract.
This wing-stemmed species is characterized by the brown, fleshy, gaping flowers covered by a short white pubescence. Within the sepals are markedly verrucose, the petals are serrulate and the oblong lip is bilobed below the middle." Luer & Vasquez 1980
Synonyms Acianthera cerberus (Luer & R.Vásquez) Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Phytologia 46(6): 360. Luer & R.Vásquez 1980,
Icones Pleurothallidinarum III Systematics of Pleurothallis Luer 1986;
Orchids of Bolivia Vol 1 Pleurothallidinae Vasquez & Ibisch 2000;
Lindleyana 16(4): 242 (Luer & R.Vásquez) Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001. as Acianthera cerberus;
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