Pleurothallis mastodon Luer & Hirtz 1996 SUBGENUS Pleurothallis SECTION Macrophyllae-Fasciculatae Lindl 1859
Photos by Alfonso Doucette Copyright © 2009, and His Flicker website
Side View of Flower and of Tusks
Photo by Ecuagenera and their Ecuador Orchid Website
TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website
Common Name or Meaning The Mastodon Pleurothallis [refers to the petals likeness to the tusks of a mastodon]
Flower Size .2" [5mm]
Found in Imbabura province of Ecuador in wet montane forests at elevations around 1200 meters as a small sized, cool growing, caespitose epiphyte with slender, erect ramicauls enveloped by 2 thin, tubular sheaths at the base and another in the lower third, and carrying a single, apical, erect, thinly coriaceous, ovate, acute, the base rounded to subcordate into the sessile base leaf that blooms in the spring on a fascile, arising and hidden inside a spathe at the leaf base, .12 to .2" [3 to 5 mm] long, single, successively flowered inflorescence with a much shorter than the pedicel floral bract.
Distinguished by the thin leaf and the flower having two long narrow petals that curve to the shape of a mastodon's tusk.
Synonyms Acronia mastodon (Luer & Hirtz) Luer 2005; Zosterophyllanthos mastodon (Luer & Hirtz) Szlach. & Kulak 2006
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 4 Dodson 2003 photo fide;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVII Systematics of Dryadella Systematics of Macrophyllae-Fasciculatae Luer 2005 as Acronia mastodon
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVII Systematics of Dryadella Systematics of Macrophyllae-Fasciculatae Luer 2005 as Acronia mastodon drawing fide
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