Pleurothallis colossus Kraenzl. ex Kerch. 1894 SUBGENUS Pleurothallis SECTION Pleurothallis SUBSECTION Macrophyllae-Racemosae [Lindl] Luer 1986
Photos by © EDUARDO CALDERON and the El Refugio Website
Photo by © Patricia Harding
Photo by © Emilio Constantino and his Facebook page
Photo by © The Orquideas del Valle Website
Drawing by Carl Luer
THROUGH
Common Name The Giant Pleurothallis [refers to the plant size only]
Flower Size .2" [5mm]
Found in Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and Ecuador in wet montane forests at elevations of 880 to 2400 meters as a medium to large sized, warm to cold growing, densely caespitose epiphyte with stout, erect ramicauls enveloped a large, loose, tubular sheath near the middle and 2 to 3, other loose sheaths at the base and carrying a single, apical, suberect to spreading, coriaceous, broadly ovate, acute, acuminate, deeply cordate below in to the sessile base leaf that blooms in the fall through spring on a fascile of 5 to 10, erect, 8 to 15.2" [20 to 38 cm] long overall, rachis 6 to 12.2" [15 to 31 cm] long, simultaneously, subdensely many flowered inflorescence arising through a foliaceous spathe and has infundibular floral bracts.
Probably the largest plant within Pleurothallis, its rivals include P excelsa and P gargantua, it can reach a meter tall and have a leaf the size of a dinner plate. It always has several inflorescence arising through a spathe on the same leaf with small, white, purple spotted, simultaneously opening flowers
The other giant leafed relatives are P imperialis, P gargantua, P reginae, P teaguei all of Section Macrophyllae-Fasciclatae
Synonyms Pleurothallis hirtzii Luer 1980; Pleurothallis praegrandis Ames 1923; Pleurothallis saccata Ames 1923
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
Schedul. Orch. 5: 17-18. Ames 1923 as P preagrandis drawing fide;
Schedul. Orch. 4: 25-26 Ames 1923 as P sacatta drawing fide;
The Orchids of Panama L.O. Williams & P Allen 1946 as Pleurothallis praegrandis drawing fide;
Phytologia 47: 76 1980 as P hirtzii;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol III Systematics of Pleurothallis Luer 1986 as P saccata;
AOS Bulletin Vol 64 #12 1995 photo fide;
AOS Bulletin Vol 64 #12 1995 photo fide;
Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 4 Dodson 2003 drawing fide;
Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica Vol 3 Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003;
AOS Bulletin Vol 80 #12 2011 photo fide;
Orquideas de Farallones de Cali Galindo-Tarazona, Haelterman, Zuluaga Trochez and Sebastian Moreno 2020 photo fide
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
