Pleurothallis inflata Rolfe 1894 SUBGENUS Pleurothallis SECTION Pleurothallis SUBSECTION Macrophyllae-Racemosae [Lindl] Luer 1986
Photo by Rodrigo Escobar
Photo by Jean Marie Vanderwinden
Drawing by Carl Luer
and 
Common Name The Inflated Pleurothallis [Refers to the puffed Flowers]
Flower Size 1.2" [3 cm]
Found in Merida state of Venezuela, Santander, Boyaca and Antioquia departments of Colombia and Ecuador at elevations of 2200 to 2800 meters as a small to medium sized, cold growing, caespitose epiphyte or terrestrial with erect, slender ramicauls subtended by 2 to 3 tubular sheaths and another near the middle carrying a single, apical, coriaceous, narrowly elliptical-obovate, acute, slightly acuminate leaf that is narrowly cuneate below into the subpetiolate base and blooms in the winter, spring and fall on 1 or 2, arising from a spathe at the apex of the ramicaul, single occasionally successively single, pendant flowered inflorescence holding the non-resupinate flowers below the leaf.
"Characterized by a slender ramicaul carrying a single, narrowly obovate, acuminate leaf and a single, purple spotted flower that sometimes is followed by a second, The uppermost synsepal is deeply cucullate, the peatls are broad below the middle and acuminate above. The lip is ransversely and obscurely 3-lobed." Luer 1999
Synonyms Pleurothallis lindenii var. pumila Rchb.f 1855
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Bull. Misc. Inform. Kew 1894: 154 Rolfe 1894 ;
Die Orchideen Schlechter 1915;
Beitrage Zur Orchideenkunde Von Colombia 27:48 Schlechter 1924;
Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965;
Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated Vol 6 Dunsterville & Garay 1976 drawing ok;
Orchids of Venezuela, An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 3 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 drawing ok;
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 6 COS 1998 photo fide;
Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 3 Ramiro and Carnevali 2000 drawing ok;
Orquideas Nativas del Tachira Cesar Fernandez 2003 photo fide;
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