Pleurothallis gigantea Lindl. SUBGENUS Kraenzlinella (Kuntze) Luer 1986
Drawing by © Carl Luer and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website
Common Name The Gigantic Pleurothallis [refers to the size of the plant]
Flower Size .4" [1 cm]
Found in Peru at elevations around 1800 to 2400 meters as a miniature to small sized, cool to cold growing, caespitose epiphyte with stout, erect ramicauls enveloped by 2 to 3 thin, loose tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, thickly coriaceous, narrowly elliptical, subacute to obtuse, cuneate below into the sessile base leaf that blooms on a loose, arising through a spathe at the apex of the ramicaul, distichous, lightly flexuous, to 12" [30 cm] long including the 6" [15 cm] long, stout, few bracted peduncle, successively single, several flowered inflorescence with an infudibular, oblique, acute, longer than the ovary floral bract.
Luer states that this orchid lives up to its name but I cannot see how! He also continues to state that it is similar in size to P otopetalum, also reportedly not that large. P gigantea is readily distinguished by the tall-carinate lateral sepals and the acute, uncinate lobes at the base of the blade of the lip above the claw." Luer 1994
Synonyms Humboltia gigantea (Lindl.) Kuntze 1891; Kraenzlinella gigantea (Lindl.) Luer 2004
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
*Fol. Orchid. 9: 28 Lindley 1859;
Revis. Gen. Pl. 2: 667 Kuntze 1891 as Humboltia
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol III Systematics of Pleurothallis Luer 1986;
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 Kraenzlinella gigantea;
Phytotaxa 275: 271 Doucette 2016 as Acianthera gigantea
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