Pleurothallis esmeraldae Luer & Hirtz 1996 SUBGENUS Acianthera [Scheidw.] Luer 1986
Drawing by © Carl Luer and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website
EARLY 
LATE 
Common Name The Esmeraldas Pleurothallis [A department of Ecuador]
Flower Size .2" [5 mm]
Found in Esmeraldas province of Ecuador and northern Peru at elevations around 750 meters as a mini-miniature to miniature sized, warm growing, caespitose epiphyte with erect, slender, laterally compressed in the upper third ramicauls with a thin, tubular sheaths on the lower third and 1 to 2 others at the base and carrying a single, erect, rigidly fleshy, coriaceous, narrowly ovate, acute, cuneate below into the sessile base leaf that blooms in the early summer and late fall on a laterally ascending arising through a spathe in the sulcus of the leaf .6" [1.5 cm] long including the .2" [5 mm] long peduncle, simultaneously 3 to 6 flowered inflorescence as long as the ovry floral bracts.
"Closely allied to P lojae but distinguished by the ramicauls noticeably longer than the stiff, erect, anrrowly ovate leaves, acute sepals verrucose within, oblong acute petals and a thick, markedly verrucose lip with acute, apillose, retrorse lateral lobes." Luer 2004
Synonyms Acianthera esmeraldae (Luer & Hirtz) Luer 2004
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Lindleyana 11: 158 Luer & Hirtz 1996
Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 4 Dodson 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 Acianthera erythrogramma
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