Pleurothallis divaricans Schltr. 1912 SUBGENUS Pleurothallis SECTION Pleurothallis SUBSECTION Longiracemosae [Luer] Luer 1998
Photo by © Modesto Zarate B. and The Parque Nacional Carrasco, Cochabamba Bolivia, Orquideas del Proyecto Hidroelectrico Ivirizu Website
Photos by C Ron Griesbeck courtesy of Yoshi Nomura and his Not So Green Thumb OrchidPages
Photo by Wiel Driessen and his Flickr Orchid Photo Website
TYPE Drawing by Carl Luer
Common Name The Spread Out Pleurothallis [refers to the racemes]
Flower Size .04" [1mm]
Found in Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia at elevations around 1000 to 2600 meters as a small sized, cool to cold growing, caespitose epiphyte with erect, slender ramicauls enveloped basally by 2 to 3, thin, tubular sheaths and another below the middle and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, narrowly elliptic-ovate, acute, narrowly cuneate into the sessile base leaf that blooms in the winter and spring on 1 to 3, arising through a slender spathe at the base of the leaf, erect to arching, congested, distichous, simultaneously many flowered, 1.6 to 5.2" [4 to 13 cm] long, racemose inflorescence with an infundibular, as long as to longer than the pedicel floral bract.
Similar to the somewhat larger P leopardina but differs mostly in the narrowly elliptic, acute leaves that blooms on 1 to 3, densely many flowered inflorescence that are usually longer than the leaves, but can be only half as long. The tiny flowers are subglobose, with the concave dorsal seplas similar to the concave synsepal. The minute petals are oblong and the minute lip is obovate, obtuse and concave." Luer 1999
Synonyms Crocodeilanthe franciscensis Luer, Thoerle & F.Werner 2011; Stelis franciscensis (Luer, Thoerle & F.Werner) J.M.H.Shaw 2014; Stelis zamorensis J.M.H.Shaw 2017
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 10: 387 Schlechter 1912
Orchids of Peru Schweinfurth vol 2 1959;
Selbyana 1: 180 Luer 1975 drawing fide;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Systematics of Pleurothallis Vol 3 Luer 1986;
Icones Orchidacearum Tropicarum Plate 351 Bennett 7 Christenson 1995 drawing good;
Orchids of Bolivia Vasquez & Ibisch Vol 1 2000 drawing fide;
Lindleyana Vol 16 No 4:263 Pridgeon & M Chase 2001 as Stelis divaricans;
Macchu Picchu Orchids Eric Christenson 2003;
Harvard Pap. Bot. 16: 320 Luer, Thoerle & F.Werner 2011 as Crocodielanthe franciscensis;
Orchid Rev. 122: 77 J M H Shaw 2014 as Stelis franciscensis nom. illeg.;
Orchid Rev. 125(1319, Suppl.): 59 J M H Shaw 2017 as Stelis zamorensis;
The Parque Nacional Carrasco, Cochabamba Bolivia, Orquideas del Proyecto Hidroelectrico Ivirizu Website 2021 photo fide;
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