Pleurothallis kakabadseae [H.Medina & J.Portilla] in ed. SUBGENUS Specklinia SECTION Hymenodanthae SUBSECTION Longicaulae [Barb. Rodr.] Luer 1986
LCDP Photo/TYPE Drawing by © Hugo Medina
Common Name or Meaning Kakabadse's Pleurothallis [Ecuadorian Yolanda Kakabadse, a conservationist, currently founder and director of Fundación Natura (Quito). She has also served as minister of Medio Ambiente in Ecuador from 1998 to 2000, as president of Unión Internacional para la Conservación de la Naturaleza (UICN), and as president of Fondo Mundial para la Naturaleza current]
Flower Size .2 to .32" [.5 to .8 cm]
Found in Imbabura province of Ecuador in primary forest on trees without moss, with high environmental humidity, at elevations around 300 to 400 meters as a mini-miniature sized, hot growing epiphyte with erect to ascending, 2 noded stems with scarious, apex acuminate, base truncate, sheaths with a ring near the base of the upper internode, carrying a single apical, elliptical to elliptical-obovate, obtuse, mucronate at the apex, margins entire, glossy, leathery, with a longitudinal groove along the midrib on the upper surface. slightly glandular, olive green in color, tapering abruptly into a petiolate base leaf that blooms in the summer and fall on an erect, racemose, arising through a glabrous annular ring spatulate bract, peduncle filiform, longer than the leaf, .92" [2.3 cm] long, greenish in color, with 2 tubular, infundibuliform bracts, oblique, acute, membranous, hyaline rachis .48" [1.2 cm] long, ascending, simultaneously 4 to 7 flowered inflorescence with obliquely tubular-infundibuliform, acute, with a short, apiculate apex, membranous, glabrous, hyaline floral bracts and carrying semiopen, flowers with the sepals orange-yellow to orange-brown, with three longitudinal lines, the petals hyaline, tinged with yellow, streaked with orange, more noticeable at the base, labellum orange, with two keels, column yellowish, column foot yellow and the anther white.
"The new species compares with Pleurothallis grobyi but differs in coloration of flowers Yellow-orange to brownish-orange vs. greenish-yellow. Lateral sepals are completely fused, forming a concave synsepalum; both lateral and dorsal sepals often have prominent veins. Vs. Lateral sepals connate, fusion less complete, and overall shape of synsepalum narrower and more elliptical. The veins on the dorsal and lateral sepals of S. grubyi are noticeably less pronounced. The petals in Specklina kakadadsei are shorter vs. in S. grobyi, covering the column. Labellum with more prominent lateral lobes, papillose surface, vs. lip with short lateral lobes, no papillae on the surface." H.Medina & J.Portilla 2025
Synonyms *Specklinia kakabadseae H.Medina & J.Portilla 2025
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Andreettana 1(4): 15 H.Medina & J.Portilla 2025 2025 Photo/drawing fide
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