Pleurothallis heliconioides Luer & R.Vásquez 1980 SUBGENUS Acianthera [Scheidw.] Luer 1986
Photo by © Luis Feipe Varela
TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer
EARLY 
Common Name The Heliconia Like Pleurothallis
Flower Size .4" [1 cm]
Found in La Paz department of Bolivia at unknown elevations as a small sized epiphyte with erect, stout, terete ramicauls with a tubular sheath below the middle and 1 to 2 others at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, thickly coriaceous, elliptical, acute, rounded or broadly cuneate below into the sessile base leaf that blooms in the early summer on a pendent, arising through a spathe at the base of the leaf, lax, flaccid, 8 to 9.2" [20 to 23 cm] long including the 2.8" [7 cm] long peduncle, distichous, simultaneously several flowered inflorescence with a tubular, much longer than the ovary floral bract.
"The basic pattern of the flowers is similar to P lanceana but the characters of the raceme is distinct. The long, flaccid raceme hangs straight down over the side of the leaf. The synsepals lie appressed to the rachis while the long, narrow, alteranting dorsal sepals stand out perpendicularily." Luer 2004
Synonyms Acianthera heliconioides (Luer & R.Vásquez) Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Phytologia 46: 366 Luer 1980;
Lindleyana Vol 16 No 4:244 Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001 as Acianthera heliconoides;
Pleurothallids Neotropical Jewels Vol 1 Karremans & Viera 2020 as Acianthera heliconoides photo fide
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
