Pleurothallis immersa Linden & Rchb. f. 1855 SUBGENUS Effusae Luer 2000
Photo by © Daniel Jimenez.
Photo by © Dale and Deni Borders.
Photo by © Tien Pham of V&T Orchids.
Photo by © Joseph Dougherty.
Inflorescence arising from mid rib of leaf Diagnostic
Photo by © The Healthy Home Gardening Website
Drawing by Carl Luer
to 
MOSTLY 
Common Name The Sunken Pleurothallis [Refers to the hanging Flowers]
Flower Size .24 to .5" [6 mm to 1.2 cm]
Found in Oaxaca, Veracruz and Chiapas states of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador in montane rainforests and elfin forests at altitudes of 800 to 1800 meters as a miniature to small sized, warm to cool growing growing, caespitose epiphyte is with stout stems enveloped basally by 2 brown, scarious sheaths carrying a single, apical, coriaceous, oblong-oblanceolate, obtuse and retuse apically, gradually narrowing below into the conduplicte, petiolate base, lustrous bright green leaves that can bloom several times a year but most often in the summer on an apical, arising apex of the ramicaul, fractiflex, wiry, 6 1/2" to 16" [16 cm to 40 cm] long, longer than the leaves, racemose inflorescence with as long as to shorter than the pedicel floral bracts and carrying several nodding, non-fragrant flowers.
Very similar to P lehmanneptis but it differs mostly in the inflorescence which arises from the base of the leaf instead of at the mid vein at the middle of the leaf.
Characterized by a stout ramicaul shorter than the thickly rigid leaf. For about half its length the peduncle is clasped within the sulcus so tthe the peduncle emerges near the middle of the leaf, The basal margins of the leaf are not decurrent on the ramicaul as in P circumplexa and relatives within the SUBGENUS Acianthera in which the peduncle arises from above the base of the leaf. The raceme is lax and flexuus with several of the fleshy flower open simultaneously. They are variable in size and color. The sepals are pubescent within, with the laterals connate, thee petals are spathulate with a longitudinal callusexternally and the lip is arcuate with low lateral lobes along the middle above the broad, unguiculate base." Luer 2000
Synonyms Effusiella immersa Luer 2007; Humboldtia immersa (Linden & Rchb. f.) Kuntze 1891; Humboldtia krameriana (Rchb.f.) Kuntze 1891 ; Humboltia immersa (Linden & Rchb. f.) Kuntze 1891; Pleurothallis calerae Schltr. 1923; Pleurothallis krameriana Rchb.f. 1865; Pleurothallis lasiosepala Schlechter 1912; Specklinia immersa (Linden & Rchb.f.) Luer 2004; Stelis immersa (Linden & Rchb.f.) Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Lankester's Epidendra Website CR ;
* Bonplandia 3: 224. Rchb.f 1855; Hamburger Garten- Blumenzeitung 21: 294 Rchb.f 1865 as P krameriana;
Revis. Gen. Pl. 2: 667 Kuntze 1891 as Humboltia immersa;
Revis. Gen. Pl. 2: 667 Kuntze 1891 as Humboltia krameriana;
Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 11: 43 Schlechter 1912 as P lasiosepala;
Xenia Orchidaceae Vol 3 Reichenbach 1896
Xenia Orchidaceae Vol 3 Reichenbach 1896 drawing fide;
Xenia Orchidaceae Vol 3 Reichenbach 1896 drawing ;
Die Orchideen Schlechter 1915;
Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 19: 184. Costa Rica Schlechter 1923 as P calerae;
Orchids of Guatemala and Belize Ames & Correll 1952;
Venezuelan Orchids Vol 3 Dunsterville & Garay 1965 drawing good;
Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965;
Flora de Venezuela Foldats Volumen XV Part 2 1970 drawing ok;
Selbyana 3: 124 Luer 1976 drawing fide;
Orchids of Venezuela, An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 3 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 drawing good;
AOS Bulletin Vol 49 No 6 1980 photo fide;
Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 1112 Dodson 1984 drawing fide;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol III Systematics of Pleurothallis Luer 1986;
Orchids Travel By Air A Pictoral Safari Mulder, Mulder-Roelfsema and Schuiteman 1990 photo fide;
Native Colombian Orchids Vol 3 COS 1991 as P immersa photo not = P lehmanneptis;
Venezuela; Paraiso de Orquideas Romero 1997 photo fide;
Native Colombian Orchids Vol 6 COS 1998 errata = P lehmanneptis;
Guatemala Y Sus Orquideas Behar & Tinschert 1998 photo fide;
Native Colombian Orchids Vol 6 COS 1998 photo ok;
Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 3 Ramiro and Carnevali 2000 drawing fide;
Lindleyana Vol 16 No 4:263 Pridgeon & M.W.Chase2001 as Stelis immersa;
Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica Vol 3 Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003;
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 Specklinia immersa;
Orchids of Mexico Hagsater etal 2005 as Stelis immersa photo good;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXIX A Third Century of Stelis of Ecuador Systematics of Apoda-Prorepentia Luer 2007 as Effusiella immersa;
Icones Orchidacearum fascile 10 plate 1096 Hagsater & Soto 2008 as Stelis immersa drawing fide;
Orchids of Costa Rica Vol 5 Morales 2009 photo fide;
Algunas Orquideas De Mexico Suarez 2012 photo fide;
Guia de Orquideas de Chiapas Carlos Rommel Beutelspacher Baigts 2013 as Stelis immersa photo fide;
Diversity of Pleurothallidinae in Guatemala: An Endangered Orchid Subtribe with High Economic and Horticultural Potentials Edgar Mo Mo, Cetzal, Basu and Vega 2017 as Stelis immersa photo fide;
Lankesteriana 19(1). 31 - 55 2019 as Stelis immersa photo fide
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