Pleurothallis endotrachys Rchb.f 1876 SUBGENUS Empusella Luer 1986 TYPE for the SUBGENUS
Photo by © Adam Karremans
Photo by Weyman Bussey, plant grown by Judy Carney.
Drawing of Specklinia endotrachys
Drawing by R Solano and Icones Orchidacearum fascile 10 plate 1092 Hagsater & Soto 2008
to 
Common Name The Bristly Pleurothallis
Flower Size 1/2" [1.25 cm]
Found only in Costa Rica on trunks of large trees in cloud forests at elevations of 1300 to 2500 meters as a miniature sized, cool to cold growing, caespitose epiphytic species with clustered, stout, short, sulcate stems carrying a single, apical, fleshy, oblanceolate, obtuse or subacute as well as tridentate apicaly, gradually narrwos below into the conduplicate, petiolate base leaf that blooms in the summer on an erect when new, pendant as successive flowers open and the stalk lengthens, that is longer than the leaves and has a fractiflex rachis and conduplicate bracts, stout, 5" to 14" [12.5 to 35cm] long, apical, racemose, few to many [10] successively single, several flowered, inflorescence with conspicuous, oblique compressed, subsacute, shorter than the pedicel flloral bracts .
NOTICE In regards to the thin apicule that protrudes from the apex of the petal, only this species and P spectabilis have this feature, but it has the lateral sepals that arch and twist and P deuterodunstervillei has the lateral sepals arched but straight.
P endotrachys is part of the P. endotrachys complex and closely related species, P deuterodunstervillei, P pfavii, P deeteroremotiflora, P juddii, P fulgens, P spectabilis, P guanacastensis and P montezumae. The true P endotrachys is endemic to Costa Rica and can be recognized by the spreading, non-twisting lateral sepals and apically emarginate petals with a long, conspicuous apicule.
Synonyms Empusella endotrachys (Rchb.f.) Luer 2004; Humboldtia endotrachys [Rchb.]O. Ktze. 1891; Humboltia endotrachys (Rchb. f.) Kuntze 1891; Specklinia endotrachys (Rchb.f.) Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001;
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Linnaea 41: 95. Rchb. f. 1876;
Xenia Orchidaceae Vol 3 Reichenbach 1878;
Revis. Gen. Pl. 2: 667. (Rchb. f.) Kuntze 1891 as Humboldtia endotrachys;
AOS Bulletin Vol 36 #9 1967 as P endostachys [sic];
Selbyana 3: 100 Luer 1976 drawing fide;
Las Orquideas de El Salvador Vol 3 Hamer 1981 drawing/photo fide;
Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 1096 Dodson 1984 drawing fide;
AOS Bulletin Vol 54 No 4 1985 photo fide;
Icones Pleurothallidianrum Vol III Systematics of Pleurothallis Luer 1986;
Icones Pleurothallidianrum Systematics of Pleurothallis Vol 3 Luer 1986 drawing fide;
Orchids Travel By Air A Pictoral Safari Mulder, Mulder-Roelfsema and Schuiteman 1990 photo fide;
The Manual Of Cultivated Orchid Species Bechtel, Cribb & Launert 1992 photo fide;
AOS Bulletin Vol 67 No 7 1998 photo fide;
Guatemala Y Sus Orquideas Behar & Tinschert 1998 photo not = P juddii;
Lindleyana Vol 16 No 4:257 Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001 as Specklina endotrachys;
Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica Vol 3 Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003 drawing fide;
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 Empusella endotrachys;
Orchids of Mexico Hagsater, Soto, Salazar, Jimenez Lopez & Dressler 2005 as Specklinia endotrachys photo fide;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXIX A Third Century of Stelis In Ecuador Systematics of Apoda-Prorepentia Luer 2007 as Empusella endotrachys;
Icones Orchidacearum fascile 10 plate 1092 Hagsater & Soto 2008 as Specklinia endotrachys drawing ok;
Orchids of Costa Rica Vol 5 Morales 2009 photo fide; Revista Guatemalensis Ano 15 No 1 Julio 2012 as Empusella endotrachys;
Phytotaxa 63:3 A reconsideration of the empusellous species of Specklinia (Orchidaceae: Pleurothallidinae) in Costa Rica Pupulin, Kerremans and Gravendeel 2012 as Specklinia endotrachys drawing/photo fide;
Algunas Orquideas De Mexico Tomo 1 Suarez 2012 as Specklinia endothachys photo fide; Orchid Digest Vol 80 #1 2016 photo fide;
AOS Bulletin Vol 85 #5 2016 drawing fide;
Orchid Genera and Species in Guatemala Archila, Szlachchetko, Chiron, Lipinska, Mystkowska and Bertolini 2018 as Specklinia endotrachys;
Pleurothallids Neotropical Jewels Vol 1 Karremans & Viera 2020 as Specklinia endotrachys photo fide
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