Pleurothallis fulgens Rchb.f. 1875 SUBGENUS Empusella Luer 1986
Photos by © Daniel Jimenez
Drawing by © Carl Luer
Common Name or Meaning The Shining Pleurothallis [Refers to the waxy flowers]
Flower Size .2" [5mm]
Found in Alajuela province of Costa Rica and Panama province of Panama on fallen trees and twigs at elevations of 950 to 2400 meters as a miniature sized, warm to cool growing, caespitose epiphyte with filiform, flexuous, glabrous ramicauls enveloped by 2 brown sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, elliptic-oblong, subacute, cuneate below into the 1 to 1.4" [2.5 to 3.5 cm] long, petiolate base leaf that blooms on an erect, lopnger than the leaf, 1.6 to 1.8" [4 to 4.5 cm] long, glabrous, single flowered inflorescence with oval-cucullate, apiculate, as long as the pedicel floral bracts.
"Large for the genus with ramicauls up to 2.8" [7 cm] tall mand a large petiolate leaf. Large, Shiny, orange flowers are produced successively in a fascile at the tip of a peduncle about half as tall as the leaf. The petals are oblique and acute and the lip is three lobes below the middle." Luer 2006
P fulgens is part of the P endotrachys complex and closely related species, P endotrachys, P deuterodunstervillei, P pfavii, P deuteroremotiflora, P spectabilis, P juddii, P guanacastensis and P montezumae.
Synonyms Humboldtia fulgens (Rchb.f.) Kuntze 1891; Pleurothallis brenesii Schltr. 1923; Sarcinula fulgens (Rchb. f.) Luer 2006; Specklinia fulgens (Rchb.f.) Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Gard. Chron., n.s., 4: 516 Rchb.f 1875;
Revis. Gen. Pl. 2: 667 Kuntze 1891 as Humboltia fulgens;
Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 19: 182. Costa Rica Schlechter 1923 as P brenesii;
The Orchids of Panama L.O. Williams & P Allen 1946;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol III Systematics of Pleurothallis Luer 1986;
Orchids Travel By Air A Pictoral Safari Mulder, Mulder-Roelfsema and Schuiteman 1990 photo fide;
Lindleyana Vol 16 No 4:257 Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001 as Specklina fulgens;
Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica Vol 3 Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVIII A Reconsideration of Masdevallia Systematics of Specklinia Luer 2006 as Sarcinula fulgens
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVIII A Reconsideration of Masdevallia Systematics of Specklinia Luer 2006 as Sarcinula fulgens drawing fide;
Orchids of Costa Rica Vol 5 Morales 2009 photo fide;
Pleurothallids Neotropical Jewels Vol 1 Karremans & Viera 2020 as fulgens photo fide
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