Pleurothallis cernua Luer 1975
SUBGENUS Pleurothallis SECTION Pleurothallis SUBSECTION Pleurothallis SERIES Pleurothallis Luer 1986
Photo by French Orchid Societe' Section Nord Website
Photo courtesy of Eric Hunt.
TYPE Drawing by Carl Luer
Common Name The Drooping Pleurothallis [refers to the flowers]
Flower Size .6" [1.5 cm]
Found in Choco' department of western Colombia and Tungarahua, Sucumbios, Pataza, Napo, Morona-Santiago and Zamora Chinchipe provinces of Ecuador at elevations around 1200 to 2500 meters as a small sized, cool to cold growing, caespitose epiphyte with slender, erect ramicauls enveloped basally by 2 to 3, close tubular sheaths and another near the middle and carrying a single, apical, coriaceous, erect, elliptical-ovate, acute, acuminate, narrowly cuneate below into the petiolate base that blooms in the winter, spring and summer on short, peduncle slender, .3 to .4" [5 to 10 mm] long; arising through a spathe at the apex of the ramicaul, fascile of 1 to 3 drooping, solitary flowers with shorter than the pedicel floral bracts.
"Pleurothallis cernua may be recognized by its slender stems, elliptical petiolate leaves, and one to three moderate-sized, yellow-green, drooping, non-resupinate flowers produced singly in a fascicle from the base of the leaf. The concave synsepal stands uppermost behind the lip, while the narrow, pointed petals spread to either side. A purple stripe is visible between the elevated sides of the lip. When the sides are spread, the lip appears very broadly obovate." Luer 1975
CAUTION The first photo matches Luer's drawing exactly the second which is sold as P cernua is not, as to what it is I am still looking
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Selbyana 1(3): 234, f. 52. Luer 1975
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol III Systematics of Pleurothallis Luer 1986;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XVII Systematics of Pleurothallis Section Abortivae, Truncatae, Subsection Acroniae, Subgenera Dracontia and Uncifera Luer 1998 drawing fide to the first photo;
Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 4 Dodson 2003 photo fide to the first photo;
Orchid Species of Peru Zelenko & Bermudez 2009 photo fide to the second photo
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
