Pleurothallis laxa (Sw.) Lindl. 1830 SUBGENUS Antilla Luer 2000

Drawing by © Carl Luer and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website

EARLY

Common Name The Lax Pleurothallis [refers to the inflorescence]

Flower Size .2" [5 mm]

Found in Jamaica at elevations of 1300 to 1925 meters as a mini-miniature to miniature sized, cool to cold growing, caespitose epiphyte with slender, erect ramicauls enveloped by a close, tubular sheath below the middle and 2 shorter sheaths at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, acute, cuneate below into the sessile base leaf that blooms in the fall and early winter on 1 to 2, arising through a spathe from near the base of the leaf, lax, distichous, 1.6 to 2.4" [4 to 6 cm] long, including the .8" [2 cm] long peduncle, successively few flowered inflorescence with a tubular microscopically cellular-glandular, shorter than the ovary floral bract

"Distinguished by the slender ramicaul and a shorter acute, elliptical, sessile leaf. The successively flowered inflorescence reaches about as long or longer than the leaf. The dark purple flowers are held more or less erect in a raceme looser than P alpestris. The sepals aer narrow, acute, fleshy and subcarinate. The petalsare narrow and minutely serrate. The lip is unguiculate, lobed above the claw and with an obscure, minutely fimbriate lobe near the middle on either side. The claw is minutely lobed above the base." Luer 2000

Synonyms Antilla laxa (Sw.) Luer 2004; Dendrobium laxum (Sw.) Sw. 1799; *Epidendrum laxum Sw. 1788; Humboltia laxa (Sw.) Kuntze 1891; Pleurothallis nigroannulata Cogn. 1909

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

Prodr. Veg. Ind. Occ.: 125 Swartz 1788 as Epdendrum laxum; ;

Nova Acta Regiae Soc. Sci. Upsal., ser. 2, 6: 84 Swartz 1799 as Dendrobium laxum

* Gen. Sp. Orchid. Pl.: 7 Lindley 1830:

Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 6: 306 Cogniaux 1909 as P nigroannulata;

Flora of Jamaica Fawcett & Rendle 1909;

Orchidaceae Antillanae Nir 2000;

Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XX Systematics of Jostia, Andinia, Barbosella, Barbrodia & Pleurothallis subgen Antilla, Effusia and Restrepioidia Luer 2000

Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XX Systematics of Jostia, Andinia, Barbosella, Barbrodia & Pleurothallis subgen Antilla, Effusia and Restrepioidia Luer 2000 drawing fide;

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 Antilla laxa;

Orchid Flora of the Greater Antilles Ackerman 2014

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