Pleurothallis microphylla A. Rich. & Galeotti 1845 SUBGENUS Specklinia SECTION Hymenodanthae SUBSECTION Longicaulae [Barb. Rodr.] Luer 1986
Photo by © Bogarin
Drawing by © Oakes Ames
Drawing by © Carl Luer
and 
Common Name The Tiny Leafed Pleurothallis
Flower Size 1/4" [.6 cm]
Found in Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa RIca, Panama, Colombia and Ecuador in wet lowland rainforests at elevations of 30 to 400 meters as a miniature sized, hot growing, repent epiphyte with a very short ramicaul enveloped below by a single, white, scarious sheath and carrying a single, apical, very small, tridenticulate apically, ovate, gradually rounded below into the short, petiolate base leaf that is held close up against and hugging the tree trunk and blooms in the summer and fall on an erect to suberect, arising from near the base of the ramicaul, peduncle .8 to 1.6" [2 to 4 cm] long, rachis .4 to 1.2" [1 to 3 cm] long, lax, successively 1 to 3; 4 to 6 flowering inflorescence with shorter tha the pedicel pedicel floral bract arising on new and old leaves.
Part of the Pleurothallis grobyi-picta alliance but characterized by the repent rhixome bearing abbreviated ramicauls with small, broadly ellipticaal, more or less ovaerlappinf, suberect leaves The lax, few-flowered raceme reaches well above the leaves. Although small, the flowers are basically similar to those of P grobyi including the pair of calli on the column foot." Luer 2006
Synonyms Humboldtia microphylla (A.Rich. & Galeotti) Kuntze 1891 ; Humboltia microphylla (A. Rich. & Galeotti) Kuntze 1891; Humboltia microphylla (A. Rich. & Galeotti) Kuntze 1891; Pleurothallis rotundifolia Rolfe 1895; Specklinia microphila (A. Rich. & Galeotti) Pridgeon & M.W. Chase 2001; Specklinia microphylla (A.Rich. & Galeotti) Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Lankester's Epidendra Website CR;
* Ann. Sci. Nat. Bot., sér. 3 3: 17. 1845;
Revis. Gen. Pl. 2: 668. 1891 as Humboldtia microphylla;
Symbolae Antillanae Vol VI Orchidaceae Urban 1909 as P rotundifolia;
Flora of Jamaica Fawcett & Rendle 1910 as P rotundifolia drawing ok;
AOS Bulletin Vol 26 No 10 1957;
Las Orquedias de El Salvador Vol 3 Hamer 1981 drawing fide;
Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 1117 Dodson 1984 drawing good;
Systematics of Pleurothallis Vol III Icones Pleurothallidinarum Luer 1986;
Orchidaceae Antillanae Nir 2000 as P rotundifolia;
Lindleyana Vol 16 No 4 Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001 as Specklinia microphila;
Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica Vol 3 Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVIII A reconsideration of Masdevallia Systematics of Specklinia Luer 2006 as Specklinia microphylla drawing ok;
Orchids of Costa Rica Vol 5 Morales 2009 photo fide;
AOS Bulletin Vol 83 #1 2013 as Specklinia microphylla photo fide;
Orchid Flora of the Greater Antilles Ackerman 2014;
Orchid Genera and Species in Guatemala Archila, Szlachchetko, Chiron, Lipinska, Mystkowska and Bertolini 2018 as Specklinia microphylla;
Pleurothallids Neotropical Jewels Vol 1 Karremans & Viera 2020 as Specklinia aff. microphylla photo fide
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