Pleurothallis loranthophylla Rchb. f 1852 SUBGENUS Rhynchopera [Kl.] Luer 1986
Photos by © Daniel Jimenez
P navicularis type Denticulate petals
Photo by Richard Korber.
TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website
to 
Common Name The Loranthaceae-Like Leaf Pleurothallis [Mistletoe family genus]
Flower Size 1/8" [.5 cm]
Found from Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia as a small sized, hot to cool growing, caespitose epiphyte in wet montane forests and piedmont forests at elevations of sealevel to 2100 meters with a slender, terete ramicaul enveloped basally by a few, tubular, sheaths and carrying a single, apical, lanceolate, acuminate, narrows rapidly into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the late spring, summer and fall on 1 or 2 erect, weak, arcuate, subtended by a elongate, oblong, compressed spathe, from near the apex of the ramicaul, 2" [5 cm] long, simultaneously several flowered, racemose inflorescence, with an oblique, acute, as long as the pedicel floral bract.
"Merely a small form of of P pedunculata but distinguished by the smaller habit, and more numerous, smaller flowers that are often spotted. The lips of both species are concave in the lower third. The petals are variably pubescent, forms with glabrous petals being more frequent in the northern parts of the distribution and ciliate petals occur to the south" Luer 1998.
Synonyms Humboldtia loranthophylla (Rchb.f.) Kuntze 1891; Humboldtia navicularis (Lindl.) Kuntze 1891; Humboltia loranthophylla (Rchb. f.) Kuntze 1891; Humboltia navicularis (Lindl.) Kuntze 1891; Humboltia subpellucida (Klotzsch) Kuntze 1891; Pleurothallis intermedia Schltr 1919; Pleurothallis navicularis Lindl. 1859; Pleurothallis punctata (H. Karst.) Schltr. 1919; Pleurothallis spathata Schltr. 1929; Pleurothallis subpellucida Klotzsch 1852; Pleurothallis violaceorosea Schltr. 1923; Rhynchopera loranthophylla (Rchb.f.) Szlach. & Marg. 2001; Rhynchopera punctata H. Karst 1848
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI Lankester's Epidendra Website CR ;
Auswahl Gew. Venez. 2: 21 H Karst. 1849 as Rhynchopera punctata;
* Bot. Zeitung (Berlin) 10(39): 674. Rchb. f 1852; Index Seminum (B, Berolinensis) 1852(App.): 1 Klotzsch 1852 as P subpellucida;
Bonplandia Rchb.f 1854;
Ann. Sci. Nat., Bot., sér. 4, 6: 373 Regel 1856 as P loranthophylla var pellucida;
Fol. Orchid. 8: 6 Lindley 1859 as P navicularis ;
Revis. Gen. Pl.2: 667. 1891 as Humboldtia loranthophylla;
Revis. Gen. Pl.2: 668. 1891 as Humboldtia navicularis;
Revis. Gen. Pl.2: 668. 1891 as Humboldtia subpellucida;
Die Orchideen der Sudamerikanischen Kordillerenstaaten I Venezuela Schlechter 1919 as P intermedia;
Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 6: 63 Schlechter 1919 as P punctata;
Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 19: 198. Costa Rica Schlechter 1923 as P violaceorosea;
Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 27: 54 Schlechter 1929 as P spathata;
Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated Vol 1 Dunsterville & Garay 1959 drawing good;
AOS Bulletin Vol 30 No 5 1961 as P spathata;
Flora de Venezuela Foldats Volumen XV Part 2 1970 drawing good;
Orchids of Venezuela, An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 3 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 drawing good;
Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 578 Dodson 1982 as Pleurothallis navicularis drawing good;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol III Systematics of Pleurothallis Luer 1986;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol III Systematics of Pleurothallis Luer 1986 as Pleurothallis navicularis;
Orchids Travel By Air A Pictoral Safari Mulder, Mulder-Roelfsema and Schuiteman 1990 as P navivularis photo fide;
The Manual Of Cultivated Orchid Species Bechtel, Cribb & Launert 1992 photo fide;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XVI Systematics of Pleurothallis subgenera Crocodeilanthe, Rhynchopera and Talpinaria Luer 1998 drawing fide;
Icones Orchidacearum Peruviarum Plate 549 Bennett & Christenson 1998 drawing fide;
Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 3 Ramiro and Carnevali 2000 drawing fide;
Orchids of Bolivia Vasquez & Ibisch Vol 1 2000 drawing fide;
Polish Bot. J. 46: 118 Szlach & Marg. 2001 as Rhynchopera loranthophylla;
Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 4 Dodson 2003 as P spathata photo fide;
Orquideas Nativas del Tachira Cesar Fernandez 2003 photo fide;
AOS Bulletin Vol 72 No 6 2003 photo fide;
AOS Bulletin Vol 72 No 9 2003 photo fide;
Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica Vol 3 Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003 drawing fide;
Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana Vol 7 Steyermark, Berry, Yatskievych and Holst 2003;
Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 4 Dodson 2003 as P spathata;
Orchid Species of Peru Zelenko & Bermudez 2009 photo fide;
Orchids of Costa Rica Vol 5 Morales 2009 photo fide;
Orchids of Tropical America Meisel 2014 photo fide;
Vanishing Beauty, Native Costa Rican Orchids Vol 2 Lacaena to Pteroglossa Pupulin 2020 photo fide
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