Pleurothallis hemisphaerica Luer & R.Escobar 1981 SUBGENUS Pleurothallis SECTION Pleurothallis SUBSECTION Macrophyllae-Racemosae [Lindl] Luer 1986
Photo by © Sebastian Vieira and his Flickr Orchid Photo Website
TYPE Drawing by Carl Luer
Common Name The Hemispherical Pleurothallis [refers to the sepals shape]
Flower Size .4" [1 cm]
Found in Antioquia department of Colombia at elevations around 2500 meters as a medium to large sized, cold growing, caespitose terrestrial with erect, stout, terete ramicauls with 2 to 3 tubular, ribbed, imbricating sheaths at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, acute, cuneate below into the conduplicate sessile base leaf that blooms in the winter on a descending, through a fugaceous spathe at the base of the leaf, 1.2 to 3.2 [3 to 8 cm] long, 2 to 6 flowered inflorescence arising with a loose, widely infundibular, much shorter than tehe pedicel floral bract.
"Characterized by the immense plant with thick, hemisphaerical petals that cling together in front of the lip to form a solid, spherical body. The deeply concave, broadly striped synsepal acts like a roof above while the middle sepal projects below. The flowers are basically similar to those of P bicornis and others." Luer 1999
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
*Orquideología 14(2): 155. Luer & Escobar 1981 Drawing fide;
Native Colombian Orchids Vol 6 COS 1998 photo fide;
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