Pleurothallis floribunda Poepp. & Endl. 1836 SUBGENUS Crocodeilanthe [Rchb.f & Warsc.]Luer 1986
Photo by © Adam Karremans and Bosque de Paz Website
Photo courtesy of © Dale and Deni Borders.
Drawing by © Carl Luer and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website
to 
Common Name The Rich Blooming Pleurothallis
Flower Size 1/8" [3 mm]
Found from Trinidad & Tobago, Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Venezuela in montane forests as a small to medium sized, warm to cold growing, caespitose epiphytic and sometime terrestrial herb that occurs at altitudes of 500 to 3000 meters with fasciculate, stout, erect ramicauls with a large, loose tubular sheath covering the middle and 2 to 3 loose tubular sheaths above the base carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, subacute to obtuse, petiolate leaf that is cuneate below into the petiole and blooms in the spring, summer and fall on an apical, racemose, to 1 1/2" [3.75 cm]long, simultaneously opening, densly many flowered inflorescence that holds the flowers at mid leaf and multi-racemes occur simultaneously from the same ramicaul.
"Even though variable vegetatively it is easily recognized by the loose sheaths that surround the ramicaul, a large leathery petiolate leaf and a fascile of small flowered racemes usually half the length of the leaf. The spathe is large but not particularily conspicuous, the sepals are acute and three veined, the petals are obtuse and single veined and the lip is trilobed with erect, obtuse, lateral lobes with intramural calli." Luer 1998
Synonyms Crocodeilanthe floribunda (Poepp. & Endl.) Luer 2004; Humboldtia floribunda (Poepp. & Endl.) Kuntze 1891; Humboltia floribunda (Poepp. & Endl.) Kuntze 1891; Pleurothallis pittieri Schltr. 1907; Pleurothallis pluriracemosa Garay 1953; Stelis floribunda (Poepp. & Endl.) Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001; Stelis vulgaris Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2002
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Nov. Gen. Sp. Pl. 1: 48 Poepp. & Endl. 1836;
Revis. Gen. Pl. 2: 667 Kuntze 1891 as Humboldtia floribunda;
Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 19: 25 Costa Rica Schlechter 1923 as P pittieri;
Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 19: 109 Costa Rica Schlechter 1923 as P pittieri;
Flore Descriptive des Antilles Francaises H. Stehle 1939 drawing ok;
Arch. Jard. Bot. Rio de Janeiro 12: 174 Garay 1953 as P pluriracemosa;
Venezuelan Orchids Vol 2 Dunsterville & Garay 1961 as Pleurothallis pluriracemosa drawing/photo ok;
AOS Bulletin Vol 33 #8 1964 as P pluriracemosa;
Flora de Venezuela Foldats Volumen XV Part 2 1970;
Orchids of Venezuela, An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 3 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 as P pluriracemosa drawing ok;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol III Systematics of Pleurothallis Luer 1986;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XVI Systematics of Pleurothallis SUBGEN Crocodeilanthe, Rhynchopera and Talpinaria Luer 1998 drawing fide;
Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 3 Ramiro and Carnevali 2000 drawing ok;
Orchids of Bolivia Vol 1 Pleurothallidinae Vasquez & Ibisch 2000 drawing ok;
Lindleyana Vol 16 No 4:263 Pridgeon & M Chase 2001 as Stelis floribunda;
Lindleyana Vol 17 No 2:100 Pridgeon & M Chase 2002 as Stelis vulgaris;
Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica Vol 3 Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003 drawing good;
Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 4 Dodson 2003 drawing fide;
Orquideas Nativas del Tachira Cesar Fernandez 2003 photo ok;
Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana Vol 7 Steyermark, Berry, Yatskievych and Holst 2003;
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 Crocodeilanthe floribunda;
Orchids of Costa Rica Vol 5 Morales 2009 photo fide;
Phytotaxa 406: 266 Karremans 2019 as Stelis pittieri;
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