Pleurothallis fonsflorum Lindl. 1859 SUBGENUS Crocodeilanthe [Rchb.f & Warsc.]Luer 1986
Drawing by Carl Luer
Common Name or Meaning The Fountain Of Flowers Pleurothallis
Flower Size .12" [3 mm]
Found in Pichincha province of Ecuador at elevations around 1800 to 2700 meters as a medium sized, cool to cold growing, caespitose epiphyte with fasciculate, stout, erect ramicauls enveloped by a loose tubular sheath near the middle and 2 to 3, loose, imbricating sheaths at the base and carrying a single, erect, coriaceous, elliptical-ovate, subacute to obtuse, broadly cuneate below into the shortly petiolate base leaf that blooms at most any time of the year on simultaneously numerous, erect, slender, more or less secund, peduncle .8" [2 cm] long, arising through a spathe .8 to 1.2" [2 to 3 cm] long, from an annulus below the apex of the ramicaul, rachis 5.2 to 10" [13 to 25 cm] long, densely and simultaneously many flowered inflorescence, with the oblique floral bract longer than the pedicel and ovary and carrying flowers with yellowish to rose sepals, transluscent petals with a purple midvein and a fleshy yellow to rose lip.
"Characterizeed by the stout ramicauls with large, loose, inflted shaeth, large, short petiolate leaves, a foliaceous spathe and a fascile of numerous small flowered racemes that usually surpass the leaves. The sepals are shortly pubescent, the dorsal concave and more or less susullate and laterals more or less free and spreading. The petals are oblong witha slightly thickened tip and either single veined or three veined. The lip is erect, obtuse, lateral lobes that are callous on their inner surfaces and a pair of approximate, subacute, conical calli at the base of the triangular midlobe." Luer 1998
Synonyms Crocodeilanthe fonsflorum (Lindl.) Luer 2004; Humboltia fonsflorum (Lindl.) Kuntze 1891; Stelis fonsflorum (Lindl.) Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
*Fol. Orchid. 8: 5 Lindley 1859;
Revis. Gen. Pl. 2: 667 (1891 as Humboltia fonsflorum; Selbyana 3: 106 Luer 1976 drawing fide; 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; Lindleyana Vol 16 No 4:263 Pridgeon & M Chase 2001 as Stelis fonsflorum; 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 fonsflorum
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