Pleurothallis gracillima Lindl. 1859 SUBGENUS Specklinia SECTION Hymenodanthae SUBSECTION Longicaulae [Barb. Rodr.] Luer 1986
Photo by Andy Phillips and Andy’s Orchids
Photo by John Varigos and his Flickr Orchid Photo Website
Common Name or Meaning The Graceful Pleurothallis
Flower Size .12" [3 mm]
Found in Cauca department of southwestern Colombia and Pichincha province of Ecuador in scrub cloud forests at elevations around 1400 to 3000 meters as a small sized, cool to cold growing, caespitose epiphyte with an erect ramicaul enveloped by 2 sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, ligulate, obtuse, shortly bilobed apically, narrowing below into the subpetiolate base leaf that blooms in the spring and summer on a single, erect, 7.2" [18 cm] long, subdensely many flowered inflorescence with cucullate-ovate, shortly acuminate, shorter than the pedicel floral bracts.
"Characterized by a long, nearly simultaneously flowered raceme that far exceeds the narrow, long-petiolate leaves. The flowers are sometimes striped in purple. The sepals are acute, the petals are obtuse and the lip is simply oblong. Vegetatively it resembles a large P costaricensis." Luer 2006
Synonyms Humboldtia gracillima (Lindl.) Kuntze 1891; Pleurothallis brevicaulis Schltr. 1920; Pleurothallis humidicola Garay 1953; Specklinia gracillima (Lindl.) Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
*Fol. Orchid. 9: 35 Lindley 1859;
Revis. Gen. Pl. 2: 667 Kuntze 1891 as Humboltias gracillima;
Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 7: 101 1920 as P brevicaulis;
Svensk Bot. Tidskr. 47: 212 Garay 1953 as P humidicola;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol III Systematics of Pleurothallis Luer 1986;
Lindleyana Vol 16 No 4:257 Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001 as Specklina gracillima;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVIII A Reconsideration of Masdevallia Systematics of Specklinia Luer 2006 as Specklinia gracillima
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVIII A Reconsideration of Masdevallia Systematics of Specklinia Luer 2006 as Specklinia gracillima drawing good;
Orchid Digest Vol 71 No 3 2007 photo fide;
Pleurothallids Neotropical Jewels Vol 1 Karremans & Viera 2020 as Specklinia gracillima photo fide
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