Pleurothallis ligulata Lindl. 1859 SUBGENUS Crocodeilanthe [Rchb.f & Warsc.]Luer 1986
Photo by © Sebastian Vieira-Uribe
Drawing by © Carl Luer and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website
Original Drawing by © Padre Pedro Ortiz Conserved at the Herbario de la Universidad Javeriana, Bogota Colombia
Drawings by Carl Luer
Common Name The Ligulate Pleurothallis [refers to the leaf shape]
Flower Size .2" [5mm]
Found in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia at elevations of 2200 to 3300 meters as a miniature to just medium sized, cold growing, ascending, denswely caespitose epiphyte with fasiculate, slender, erect ramicauls enveloped by a closely adpressed, tubular sheath near the middle and 2 to 3 others imbricating at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, narrowly elliptical, acute, subacute to narrowly obtuse, cuneate below into the base leaf that blooms in the spring and summer on 1 to 3, arising through a slender spathe from an annulus below the abscission layer, distichous to subsecund, subdense, 1.6 to 10" [4 to 25 cm] long, simultaneously many flowered, racemose inflorescence with infundibular, shorter than the ovary floral bracts.
"A variable species that is ditinguished by the ascending, densely fasciculated, sheathed ramicauls, elliptical to narrowly elliptical, petiolate leaves and one to three subdense, elongate racemes of small to medium sized, yellowish to purplish flowers. . The sepals are variously pubescent within and the petals are broadly obtuse, three veined [at least below the middle] and apically rounded. Very similar species are P laminata, P patateensis, P pelucida, and P pennelliana. Another similar species is P pulchellus but it has narrower single veined petals and an ovate-trilobed lip with distinct marginal calli on the lateral lobes." Luer 1998
Synonyms Crocodeilanthe ligulata (Lindl.) Luer 2004; Humboldtia ligulata (Lindl.) Kuntze 1891; Pleurothallis atacasana Luer 1980; Pleurothallis chlamydopus Schltr. 1920; Pleurothallis hopfiana Schltr. 1924; Pleurothallis nubigena Schltr. 1924; Pleurothallis patula Schltr. 1920; Stelis ligulata (Lindl.) Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
Repertorium Specierum Novarum Regni Vegetabilis Schlechter 1920 as P chlamydopus;
Repertorium Specierum Novarum Regni Vegetabilis Schlechter 1920 as P patula;
Beitrage Zur Orchideenkunde Von Colombia 27:12 Schlechter 1924; as P hopfiana;
Repertorium Specierum Novarum Regni Vegetabilis Schlechter 1924 as P nubigena;
Phytologia 46: 358 Luer 1980 as P atacasana;
Icones Pleurothallidianrum Vol III Systematics of PleurothallisLuer 1986 as P atacasana;
Icones Pleurothallidianrum Vol III Systematics of Pleurothallis Luer 1986 as P hopfiana;
Icones Pleurothallidianrum Vol III Systematics of Pleurothallis Luer 1986;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XVI Systematics of Pleurothallis SUBGEN Crocodeilanthe, Rhynchopera and Talpinaria Luer 1998 drawing fide;
Orchids of Bolivia Vol 1 Vasquez & Ibisch 2000 drawing fide;
Lindleyana 16 4:264 Pridgeon & Chase 2001 as Stelis ligulatus; 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 ligulata; LANKESTERIANA 23(2). Karremans, Moreno, Gil-Amaya, Morales, Espinosa, Mesa, Restrepo, Rincon-Gonzales, Serna, Sierra-Ariza and Vieira-Uribe 2023 as Stelis ligulata photo fide;
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