Pleurothallis geminicaulina Ames 1923 SUBGENUS Acianthera [Scheidw.] Luer 1986
Photo by Ecuagenera and their Ecuador Orchid Website
Drawing by © Carl Luer
Common Name or Meaning The Twin Stemmed Pleurothallis
Flower Size .2" [5mm]
Found in Cartago province of Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and Pichincha and Esmeraldas provinces of Ecuador at elevations around 200 to 1500 meters as a miniature sized, hot to cool growing, shortly repent epiphyte with erect, elongate ramicauls enveloped basally by 2, close, tubular, acuminate sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, narrowly elliptic, obtuse, gradually narrowing below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms at most any time of the year on a reclining, arising through a spathe at the apex of the ramicaul, peduncle .4 to .6" [1 to 1.5 cm] long, rachis .2 to .4" [.5 to 1 cm] long, loose, distichous, simultaneously single to 3 flowered inflorescence with as long to longer than the pedicel floral bract.
"Distinguished by the frequent occurence of ramicauls in pairs while the rhizome is distinctly elongate between other ramicauls. The ramicauls are compressed towards the leaf, the elliptic leaf is thick with a few-flowered raceme les thatn half its length, the minutely pubescent sepals are acute, the petals are serrate and the lip is oblong and bicallous." Luer 2004
Synonyms Acianthera geminicaulina (Ames) Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Lankester's Epidendra Website CR;
* Schedul. Orch. 6: 59. Ames 1923 ; ;
Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 231 Dodson 1980 drawing fide;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol III Systematics of Pleurothallis Luer 1986;
Lindleyana Vol 16 No 4:243 Pridgeon & M.W.Chase2001 as Acianthera geminicaulina;
Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 4 Dodson 2003 photo fide;
Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica Vol 3 Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 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 Acianthera geminicaulina;
Orquideas de la Serrania del Baudo Misas Urreta 2006 drawing/photo fide;
Orchid Species of Peru Zelenko Bermudez 2009 photo fide as Acianthera geminicaulina;
Phytotaxa 422 (3) Zambrano 2019 as Acianthera geminicaulina drawing fide;
Anales Jard. Bot. Madrid 75(1)e069: 13 2018 A taxonomic synopsis of Acianthera (Orchidaceae: Pleurothallidinae) in Peru, including two new species Damian, Chiron and Mitidieri 2018 as Acianthera geminicaulina;
Pleurothallids Neotropical Jewels Vol 1 Karremans & Viera 2020 as Acianthera geminicaulina photo ok
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