Pleurothallis laevis Luer & Hirtz 1998 SUBGENUS Crocodeilanthe [Rchb.f & Warsc.]Luer 1986
Photo by © Alexander Hirtz
Drawing by © Carl Luer and The Epidendra Orchid Photo Website
LATE
EARLY
Common Name The Smooth Pleurothallis [refers to the glabrous sepals and lip]
Flower Size .24" [6 mm]
Found in Bolivar province of Ecuador in cloud forests at elevations of 2600 to 3200 meters as a medium sized, cold growing, densely caespitose epiphyte or terrestrial on roadbank with stout, fasciculate, erect ramicauls with a loose, tubular sheath near the middle and 2 to 3 loose, imbricating sheaths at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, obtuse, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the late summer and early fall on 3 to 6, simultaneous, slender, arising through a spathe with an annulus, 8 to 10" [20 to 25 cm] long, more or less secund, densely and simultaneously many flowered inflorescence with an inflated, longer than the ovary floral bract.
"Closely allied to the P laevigata complex but P laevis is distinguished by the totally glabrous flowers and lateral sepals that are not deflexed near the middle. The lip is larger, obovate and without any callus. The obtuse apex is decurved." Luer 1998
Synonyms Crocodeilanthe laevis (Luer & Hirtz) Luer 2004; Stelis laevis (Luer & Hirtz) Pridgeon & M.W.Chase, 2001
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XVI Systematics of Pleurothallis SUBGEN Crocodeilanthe, Rhynchopera and Talpinaria Luer 1998 drawing fide;
Lindleyana Vol 16 No 4:264 Pridgeon and Chase 2001 as Stelis laevis;
Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 4 Dodson 2003 photo good;
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 Crocodeilanthe laevis
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