Pleurothallis melior [Luer & Toscano] in ed. SUBGENUS Effusae Luer 2000

TYPE Drawing by Carl Luer

EARLIER

Common Name The Better Pleurothallis [refers to its larger flower in comparrison to P sordida a similar species]

Flower Size .12" [3 mm]

Found in Espírito Santo state of Brazil without locational data as a mini-miniature sized, warm growing, caespitose epiphyte with slender, erect, ramicauls enveoped by 3 to 4 tightly fitting, tubular sheaths with the margins of ostia minutely ciliate and carryign a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, dotted with light purple, elliptical, obtuse to rounded at the apex, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the earlier fall on an ascending, from near the apex of the ramicaul, peduncle .8 to 1.2" [2 to 3 cm] long, to 3.2" [8 cm] long overall, loose, flexuous, successively single, many-flowered inflorescence with shorter than the pedicel floral bracts and carrying non-resupinate flowers.

"This species from Espírito Santo is similar vegetatively to P sordida, but differs with larger, non-resupinate flowers with minutely apiculate sepals and petals. The petals are without a callus; the lip has a broad callus above the base of the lip that is mealy." Luer & Toscano 2011

Synonyms *Pabstiella melior Luer & Toscano 2011

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

* Harvard Papers in Botany, Vol. 17, No. 2, pp. 374 2011 MISCELLANEOUS NEW SPECIES IN THE PLEUROTHALLIDINAE (ORCHIDACEAE) FROM BRAZIL Carlyle A. Luer and A. L. V. Toscano de Brito as Pabstiella melior drawing fide;

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