Pleurothallis laevigata Lindl. 1845 SUBGENUS Crocodeilanthe [Rchb.f & Warsc.]Luer 1986
photo/Drawing by © Carl Luer and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website
Common Name The Smooth Pleurothallis [refers to the spathe]
Flower Size .2" [5 mm]
Found in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru at elevations 1600 to 3800 meters as a small to large sized, cool to cold growing, densely caespitose epiphyte with slender to stout, erect ramicauls with a loose tubular sheath near the middle and 2 to 3 loose, imbricating others at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, thickly coriaceous, elliptical, subacute to obtuse, cuneate below into the sessile base leaf that blooms in the spring on a few to many, more or less secund, arising through a broad, foliaceous spathe from an annulus adjacent to the abscission layer, 4 to 12" [10 to 30 cm] long including the .8 to 2" [2 to 5 cm] long peduncle, densely, simultaneously many flowered inflorescence with an infundibular, shorter, to as long as the ovary floral bract.
"Similar to P cassidis in many ways but differs in the dorsal sepal that is concave and three veined. The lateral sepals are more or less reflexed near the middle. The petals are broad, rounded apically and three veined. The fleshy lip is broadly oblong to ovate, more or less dilated below the middle with erect sides. The apex is broadly obtuse with the tip not decurved. The center of the lip is shallowly concave between a pair of rounded calli below the middle that are more or less continuous with the curved basal carina above the basal cavity. A third callus is sometimes present medially above the apex." Luer 1998
Synonyms Crocodeilanthe laevigata (Lindl.) Luer 2004; Humboltia laevigata (Lindl.) Kuntze 1891; Pleurothallis conchopetala Schltr. 1921; Pleurothallis hartwegii Lindl. 1845; Pleurothallis lamprochlamys Schltr. 1915; Stelis laevigata (Lindl.) Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. 15: 106 Lindley 1845;
Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. 15: 106 Lindley 1845 as P hartwegii nom. illeg.
Revis. Gen. Pl. 2: 667 Kuntze 1891 as Humboltia laevigata; Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 14: 130 Schlechter 1915 as P lamprochlamys; Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 8: 57 Schlechter 1921 as P conchopetala; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol III Systematics of Pleurothallis Luer 1986; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol III Systematics of Pleurothallis Luer 1986 as P lamprochlamys drawing/photo fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XVI Systematics of Pleurothallis SUBGEN Crocodeilanthe, Rhynchopera and Talpinaria Luer 1998 drawing fide; Lindleyana Vol 16 No 4 Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001 as Stelis laevigata; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVI Pleurothallis subgenera Acianthera A Second Century of New species of Ecuador Luer 2004 as Crocodeilanthe laevigata;
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
