Pleurothallis excelsa Garay 1968 SUBGENUS Elongatia Luer 1986

Plant and Inflorescence

Photos by Jay Pfahl

Side View

Photo courtesy of Eric Hunt

Frontal View of Flower

Photo courtesy of © Lourens Grobler

Drawing

Drawing by © Carl Luer

Common Name or Meaning The Tall Rising Pleurothallis

Flower Size 2" [5 cm]

Found in Antioquia and Tolima departments of Colombia and Ecuador in virgin forests at elevations around 1600 to 1900 meters as a large sized, cool growing, densely caespitose epiphyte or terrestrial in rich shaded humus with stout, erect ramicauls enveloped basally by a purple spotted, tubular sheath below the middle and 2 at the base carrying an apical, single, erect, thickly coriaceous, elliptical-ovate, subacute, sessile, gradually narrowing below into he cuneate base leaf that blooms in the winter and spring on a suberect to arching, arising through a basal spathe, loose, subsecund, 20 to 24" [50 to 60 cm] long, simultaneously several flowered, racemose inflorescence and has infundibular, acute, shorter than the pedicel floral bracts.

"This gigantic species one of the largest of all racemose species, occurs in the Central Cordillera of Colombia where it is infrequently encountered. It is found growing terrestrially in rich, shaded humus of virgin forests at a moderate altitude less than 2000 meters above sa level. Up to ten immense flowers with non-caudate sepals 2" [five centimeters] long are produced simultaneously on a stout, arching inflorescence. The protruding, cylindrical lip is nearly as long as the sepals. From a shallowly concave basal third, the margins of the lip recurve to form a long, straight, narrow tube." Luer 1994

Synonyms Elongatia excelsa (Garay) Luer 2004; Stelis excelsa (Garay) Pridgeon & M.W. Chase 2001

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

*Caldasia 10: 232 Garay 1968;

Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol III Systematics of Pleurothallis Luer 1986;

Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XI Systematics of Lepanthes Subgenus Brachycladium and Pleurothallis Subgenus Aenigma, Subgenus Elongata and Subgenus Kranzlinella Luer 1994

Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XI Systematics of Lepanthes Subgenus Brachycladium and Pleurothallis Subgenus Aenigma, Subgenus Elongata and Subgenus Kranzlinella Luer 1994drawing fide;

Native Colombian Orchids Vol 6 COS 1998 photo fide;

Lindleyana Vol 16 No 4:262 Pridgeon & M.W. Chase 2001 2001 asas Stelis excelsa;

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 2004as Elongatia excelsa

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