Pleurothallis murex Rchb.f. 1865 SUBGENUS Acianthera [Scheidw.] Luer 1986
Drawing by © Hagen Stenzel and Systematics and evolution of the genus Pleurothallis R. Br. (Orchidaceae) in the Greater Antilles
Common Name The Seashell Pleurothallis
Flower Size .1" [2 mm]
Found in central and eastern Cuba in semi-open places in vegetation of the mogotes or charrascales at elevations of 200 and 1000 meters as a mini-miniature sized, hot to cool growing, caespitose epiphyte with ascending to pendent, enveloped below the middle by 1 to 2 scarious sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, triangular in transverse section, broadly ovate to suborbicular, rounded to obtuse, shortly apiculate, green and verrucate on the upper side, green and rough on the lower side; base obtuse to rounded; margin irregularily denticulate to profoundly crenulate leaves that blooms on a terminal, arising through, at the base, a conduplicate, carinate and crenate sheath with an annulus, provided with two or three bracts, pendent or ascending, 1-5 per stem, .6" [1.5 cm] long, glabrous, successivley few-flowered inflorescence
CAUTION!!! Kew includes Pleurothallis papulifolia as a synonym of P murex, I have kept it separate for now.
Synonyms Acianthera murex (Rchb.f.) Luer 2009; Specklinia murex (Rchb.f.) Luer 2004
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
Catologo Descriptivo de Las Orquideas Cubanas Acuna 1987;
Orchidaceae Antillanae Nir 2000 drawing good;
Systematics and evolution of the genus Pleurothallis R. Br. (Orchidaceae) in the Greater Antilles Hagen Stenzel 2004 drawing fide;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXX Lepanthes of Jamaica Systematics of Stelis of Ecuador 4 Luer 2009 as Acianthera murex;
Orchid Flora of the Greater Antilles Ackerman 2014 drawing hmm
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