Pleurothallis melanostele Luer & R.Vásquez 1981 SUBGENUS Pseudostelis
TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website
Common Name or Meaning The Black Column Pleurothallis
Flower Size .08" [2 mm]
Found in La Paz departemnt of Bolivia at elevations around 2550 to 2800 meters as a mini-miniature to miniature sized, cold growing, caespitose epiphyte with erect, stout, broadly expanded towards the apex, sharply winged ramicauls enveloped at the base by 2 to 3 sheaths and carrying a single, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, acute, margins of the sessile base continuous with the sharply winged apex of the ramicaul that blooms in the spring on an erect, arising through a spathe, .4" [1 cm] long, simultaneously few flowered inflorescence with an infundibular, longer than the ovry floral bract.
"Distinguished by the obtuse and single veined sepals, the laterals connate only basally. The petals are transluscent and obtuse. The lip is thick, concave and obscurely lobed below the middle. The stout column and anther are conspicuous and purple black." Luer 1999
Synonyms Crocodeilanthe melanostele (Luer & R.Vásquez) Toscano 2018; Stelis melanostele (Luer & R.Vásquez) Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
*Orquideología 20: 74. Luer 1996 drawing fide;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol III Systematics of Pleurothallis Luer 1986
Orchids of Bolivia Vol 1 Pleurothallidinae Vasquez & Ibisch 2000 drawing fide;
Lindleyana Vol 16 No 4:264 Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001 as Stelis melanostele;
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