Pleurothallis lichenicola Griseb. 1866 SUBGENUS Specklinia SECTION Hymenodanthae SUBSECTION Longicaulae [Barb. Rodr.] Luer 1986
Drawing by © Hagen Stenzel and Systematics and evolution of the genus Pleurothallis R. Br. (Orchidaceae) in the Greater Antilles
Common Name The Lichen Living Pleurothallis
Flower Size .6" [1.5 cm]
Found in Holguin and Guantanamo provinces of eastern Cuba in shady and humid places in montane rainforests, mesophyllous evergreen rainforests and charrascales from 300 to 900 meters as a mini-miniature sized, hot to warm growing, caespitose epiphyte with very short, ascending ramicauls enveloped by 3 hyaline sheaths and carrying a single apical, erect, coriaceous, broadly oblong to obovate, obtuse to rounded, minutely tridentate, small warts above, galbrous beneath, attenuate below into the base leaf that blooms in the spring on a terminal, arising through an annulus, provided with 2 bracts, erect to ascending, glabrous, .075 to .16" [2 to 4 mm] long, generally 2 simultaneously flowered inflorescence with tubular, longer to as long as the pedicel floral bract.
"Part of the P grobyi/P picta complex but distinguished by its very small size but becoming dense mats and bearing a single, usually foloed by a second, tiney, white flower with a red lip held no higher than the broadly elliptical leaves by a short [eduncle, The sepals are white or light yellow amd thckened at the narrowly obtuse apex. The petals are narrowly spathiulate. The lip is red purple. thick and oblong, shallowly channeled and convex at the recurved apex. P gemina now considered synomonous differs in bearing 2 simultaemsou flowers instead of the usual successive flowers." Luer 2006
Synonyms Pleurothallis gemina H.Stenzel 2001; Specklinia lichenicola (Griseb.) Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Cat. Pl. Cub.: 259 Griseb. 1866
Catologo Descriptivo de Las Orquideas Cubanas Acuna 1987;
Orchidaceae Antillanae Nir 2000;
Lindleyana 16: 28 Stenzel 2001 as P gemina TYPE drawing fide;
Lindleyana Vol 16 No 4:258 Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001 as Specklinia lichenicola:
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVIII A Reconsideration of Masdevallia Systematics of Specklinia Luer 2006 as Specklinia lichenicola drawing fide;
Orchid Flora of the Greater Antilles Ackerman 2014 drawing fide
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