Pleurothallis discoidea Lindl. 1835 SUBGENUS Pleurothallis SECTION Macrophyllae-Fasciculatae Lindl 1859
Photo by © Kris Sookdeo and the Orchids of Trinidad Website
Photo courtesy of Oliver Lenhard.
Drawing by Carl Luer
TYPE Drawing by I Bock and The Epidendra Website
Common Name The Disc-Shaped Pleurothallis
Flower Size .16" [4mm]
Found in Trinidad, Venezuela, Surinam, French Guiana, Ecuador and Peru in wet montane forests at elevations of 600 to 2000 meters as a miniature sized, warm to cool growing, caespitose epiphyte with slender, wiry ramicauls enveloped basally by 2 close, tubular, papery, evanescent sheaths all carrying a single, apical, oblong-lanceolate, attenuate, acuminate, tridentate leaf that becomes conduplicate towards the base and blooms at most any season of the year on a sessile, arising from a spathe, sequentially single flowering inflorescence with a tubular, shorter than the pedicel floral bract.
"Distinguished by being the only Caribbean Section Acronia orchid with variable sized and shaped leaves and vary from elliptical, to narrowly elliptical-linear. The leaves are frequently held horizontal, with the sessile base cuneate not rounded. The single flower is borne on the dorsum at the base of the leaf. The color is often yellow green with an orange lip. The dorsal sepal and synsepal are ovate, the petals are thin and entire and the lip is oblong and obtuse, shallowly channeled medially witha large glenion. The center of the lip was described are red in the original collection as is often seen today." Luer 2005
Synonyms Acronia discoidea (Lindl.) Luer; 2005 Humboldtia discoidea [Lindl.] Kuntze 1891; Pleurothallis juninensis var. angustifolia C.Schweinf. 1951; Pleurothallis leptopetala Cogn. 1910; Pleurothallis mariae I.Bock 1985; Pleurothallis morrisii Fawc. & Rendle 1909; Pleurothallis scleropus Schltr. 1929; Pleurothallis sugdenii Luer, Orquideologia 20: 229 (1996
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Edwards's Bot. Reg. 21: sub t. 1797. Lindl. 1835;
Revis. Gen. Pl. 2: 667. (Lindl.) Kuntze 1891 as Humboldtia discoidea;
Symbolae Antillanae Vol VI Orchidaceae Urban 1910;
Symbolae Antillanae Vol VI Orchidaceae Urban 1910 P leptopetala;
Flora of Jamaica Fawcett & Rendle 1910 as P morrisii
Flora of Jamaica Fawcett & Rendle 1910 as P morrisii drawing ok;
AOS Bulletin Vol 28 No 8 1959 photo fide;
Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated Vol 1 Dunsterville & Garay 1959 drawing fide;
Native Orchids of Trinidad Schultes 1960;
AOS Bulletin Vol 38 No 6 1969;
Flora de Venezuela Foldats Volumen XV Part 2 1970 drawing fide;
Orchids of Venezuela, An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 3 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 drawing fide;
Orchidee (Hamburg) 36(3): 128. I. Bock 1981 as P mariae drawing fide;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Systematics of Pleurothallis Vol 3 Luer 1986;
The Orchids of Surinam Werkhoven 1986 photo ok;
Native Orchids of the Eastern Carribean Kenny 1988 photo fide; cones Orchidacearum Peruviarum Plate 350 Bennett & Christenson 1995 drawing fide;
Orquideología 20: 229 Luer 1996 as P sugdenii Drawing fide;
Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 3 Ramiro and Carnevali 2000 drawing fide; Orchids of Bolivia Vol 1 Pleurothallidinae Vasquez & Ibisch 2000 drawing fide;
Orchids of Bolivia Vasquez & Ibisch Vol 1 2000 as P scleropus; Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica Vol 3 Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum XXVII Systematics of Dryadella and Acronia Section Macrophyllae-Fasciculatae Luer 2005 as Acronia discoidea;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum XXVII Systematics of Dryadella and Acronia Section Macrophyllae-Fasciculatae Luer 2005 as Acronia discoidea drawing ok;
Orchid Flora of the Greater Antilles Ackerman 2014;
Vanishing Beauty, Native Costa Rican Orchids Vol 2 Lacaena to Pteroglossa Pupulin 2020 photo not = P ruscifolia
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