Pleurothallis gigas Luer & R.Escobar 1996 SUBGENUS Crocodeilanthe [Rchb.f & Warsc.]Luer 1986
Photo by Sebastian Viera-Uribe
TYPE photo Rodrigo Escobar/TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website
LATE 
Common Name The Giant Pleurothallis [refers to the size of the plant]
Flower Size .4" [1 cm]
Found in Antioquia department of Colombia on the northern end of the central cordillera at elevations around 1700 to 2500 meters as a medium to giant sized, cool to cold growing, scandent, ascending, creeping below terrestrial on roadbanks with stout, fasciculate, erect ramicauls with a tubular sheath near the middle and 2 to 5, large, loose, imbricating sheaths at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, broadly elliptical-ovate, acute, cuneate below into the conduplicate, petiolate base leaf that blooms in the late winter and spring on 5 to 10, arising through a foliaceous spathe with an annulus set below the abscission layer at the apex of the ramicaul, erect, congested, 6 to 12" [15 to 30 cm] long, simultaneously many flowered inflorescence with a shorter than the ovary floral bract.
" A gigantic terrestrial distinguished by the great size of the ramicauls and leaves, some ramicauls reaching well over 40" [1 meter] in length and leaves far larger than a dinner plate. Numerous erect racemes of crowded, little, greenish-white flowers are produced from a large spathe below the petiole. The sepals are obtuse and ciliate, the petals are obovate and obtuse and the blade of the lip is oblong and microscopically pubescent." Luer 1998
Synonyms Crocodeilanthe gigas (Luer & R.Escobar) Luer 2004; Stelis gargantua Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2002
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
Orquideología 20(1): 52. Luer 1996 photo/Drawing fide;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XVI Systematics of Pleurothallis SUBGEN Crocodeilanthe, Rhynchopera and Talpinaria Luer 1998 drawing fide;
Lindleyana Vol 16 No 4 Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001 as Stelis gigas;
Lindleyana Vol 17 No 2 Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2002 as Stelis gragantua;
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 gigas;
Phytotaxa 376 (4): 177–184 Zambrano & Solano 2018 as Stelis gargantua;
LANKESTERIANA 23(2). Karremans, Moreno, Gil-Amaya, Morales, Espinosa, Mesa, Restrepo, Rincon-Gonzales, Serna, Sierra-Ariza and Vieira-Uribe 2023 as Stelis gargantua photo fide;
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