Pleurothallis kashi-menkakarai Mashendo-Jimbicti, Vélez-Abarca & M.M.Jiménez 2023 SUBGENUS Pleurothallis SECTION Macrophyllae-Fasciclatae Lindl. 1859
Photos/TYPE Drawing by © Jimenez, Wilson and L Velez-Abarca and Five new species of Pleurothallis (Orchidaceae: Pleurothallidinae) in subsection Macrophyllae-Fasciculatae from Southeastern Ecuador M Jimenez, Velez-Abarca, Mashendo-Jimbicti, Garzon-Suarez, Monteros amd Mark Wilson 2023
LATE 
EARLY 
Common Name The Lost At Night Pleurothallis [Kashi [night] menkakari [lost] in the shuar language as the species was found at ngight while the researchers were lost]
Flower Size .2" [5 mm]
Found in Zamora-Chinchipe province of Ecuador in lower montane forests at elevations around 1400 meters as a small sized, cool growing, caespitose epiphyte with erect, green ramicauls enveloped by 2 papyraceous sheaths at the base and one below the middle and carrying a single, coriaceous, erect to suberect, ovate, long acuminate, shiny, cordate at the base, with faintly raised lateral nerves, margin revolute, purplish leaf that blooms in the late winter and early spring on an erect, arising thriough a reclining spathe, peduncle abbreviate ca. .04" [1 mm] long, concealed within a spathaceous bract, resupinate, produced in a successive fascicle, to .56" [1.4 cm]long single-flowered inflorescence with a tubular, as long to slightly longer than the pedicel floral bract.
Pleurothallis kashi-menkakarai is similar to Pleurothallis angusta and P. fossulata with which it shares flowers with a maroon-burgundy colored lip, a triangular, cream-colored area between the apex and edges of the lip and glenion and two calli flanking the deep glenion. The new species is distinguished from P. fossulata by its smaller plants (12" [30 cm] vs. 17.2" [42 cm] tall), the narrower (1.2" to 1.8" [3.0 to 4.5 cm] vs. 2 to 2.8 [5 to 7 cm] wide), cordate, attenuate leaves (vs. deeply cordate, acuminate), the shorter pedicel (.156 to .2" [3.9–5.0 mm] vs. .4" [10 mm] long), the shorter ovary (1.4 to 1.84" [3.5 to 4.6 vs. .24" [6 mm] long), the one flower produced per fascicle (vs. to 2 to 3 often simultaneous), the non-dilated petals (vs. dilated at the base), the subacute synsepal (vs. obtuse) and the strongly incurved apex of the lip (vs. convex). It is also similar to Pleurothallis angusta but is distinguished by the smaller plants (12" [30 cm] vs. 20" [50 cm] tall), the shorter (2.64" to 4.4" [6.6 to 11.0 cm] vs. [.32 to 6.6" [8.0 to 16.5 cm] wide), ovate, long-acuminate leaves (vs. lanceolate, acute), the shorter pedicel (.156" to .02" vs .056" [3.9–5.0 mm vs. 14 mm long), the shorter ovary (.14 to .164" vs .02 to .028" 3.5–4.6 mm vs. 5.0–7.0 mm long), the translucent yellow or reddish brown flowers (vs. dark purple), the shorter (.32 vs .44" [8 mm vs. 11 mm] long), broadly elliptic, obtuse dorsal sepal (vs. ovate, acute), the 4-veined synsepal (vs. 5-veined), the smaller (.28 to .2" x .036 to .4" [4.5–5.0 × 0.9–1.0 mm vs. 6.3–7.0 × 1.5–2.0 mm), narrowly oblong, acute petals (vs. falcate, obtuse), the lip with crenulate margins (vs. minutely ciliate) and the narrowly obovate anther cap (vs. obtriangular) (Pupulin 2021).
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
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