Pleurothallis choerorhyncha Luer 1996

SUBGENUS Crocodeilanthe [Rchb.f & Warsc.]Luer 1986

TYPE Drawing by Carl Luer and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website

Common Name The Pig Nose Pleurothallis [refers to the callus on the lip]

Flower Size .4" [1 cm]

Found in Valle de Cauca department of Colombia at elevations around 2600 to 2900 meters as a small to medium sized, cold growing epiphyte with erect, stout ramicauls with a loose tubular sheath above the middle and 2 to 3 loose, imbricating sheaths at the base and carrying a single, apical, coriaceous, erect, elliptical, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the fall on several, simultaneous, more or less secund, arising through a broad, conspicuous spathe from an annulus below the abscission layer, 4 to 9.6" [10 to 23 cm] long including the .8 to 1.6" [2 to 4 cm] long peduncle, densely simultaneously many flowered inflorecence with an infundibular, as long as the pedicel floral bract.

"In habit this species resembels many other species with a large petiolatae leaf a conspicuous spathe and a fascile of several, many flowered racemes. Most unusual is the lip which resembles the lip of P galeatea but the anterioir lobe of P choerorhyncha possesses an oviod, concave callus distinctly demarcated from the disc above a constriction. The lateral lobes are erect, each with an intramural callus as commmonly seen in other species." Luer 1998

Synonyms Crocodeilanthe choerorhyncha (Luer) Luer 2004; Stelis choerorhyncha (Luer) Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

*Orquideologia 20: 203 Luer 1996;

Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XVI Systemics of Pleurothallis SUBGEN Crocodeilanthe, Rhynchopera and Talpinaria Luer 1998 drawing fide;

Lindleyana Vol 16 No 4:261 Pridgeon & Chase 2001 as Stelis choerorhyncha

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 Crocodielanthe choerorhyncha;

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