Pleurothallis odontotepala 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 Toothed Tepals Pleurothallis
Flower Size .2" [5 mm]
Found in Cuba, Dominican Republic and Jamaica in shady and humid places in montane rainforests from 600 to 1300 meters as a mini-miniature sized, warm to cool growing, caespitose epiphyte with erect to ascending , laterally compressed ramicauls enveloped by 3, tubular, conduplicate sheaths to below the middle and carrying a single, apcial, erect, coriaceous, narrowly ovate to elliptic, acute, tridentate, glabrous, carinate, entire, slughtly revolute, shortly attenuate to obtuse into the petiolate base leaf that blooms on 1 to 4, terminal, ascending to prostrate, arising through a spathe, glabrous, .15 to .25" [3 to 8 mm] long, successively to subsimultaneoulsy opening, 2 to 7 flowered inflorescence with obique, acute, longer to shorter than the ovary floral bracts.
"Distinguished by the small, caespitose habit with ramicauls shorter than to nearly as long as the elliptical, sessile leaf. Two to three small, often cleistogamous, purple flowers are borne in a short raceme. The sepals are fleshy with the laterals forming a deep mentum with the column foot. The petals are transluscent and erose above the middle. The lip is obscurely trilobed below the middle with verrucose calli extending forward onto the verrucose apex." Luer 2004
Synonyms Acianthera odontotepala (Rchb.f.) Luer 2004; Pleurothallis brachypetala Griseb. 1866
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
Flora of Jamaica Fawcett & Rendle 1910 as P brachypetala
Flora of Jamaica Fawcett & Rendle 1910 as P brachypetala drawing fide;
Catologo Descriptivo de Las Orquideas Cubanas Acuna 1987;
Catologo Descriptivo de Las Orquideas Cubanas Acuna 1987 as P brachypetala; Orchidaceae Antillanae Nir 2000;
Systematics and evolution of the genus Pleurothallis R. Br. (Orchidaceae) in the Greater Antilles Hagen Stenzel 2004 drawing fide;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVI Pleurothallis subgenus Acianthera and Three Allied subgenera, A Second Century of new Species of Stelis of Ecuador, Epibator, Ophidion and Zootrophion Luer 2004 as Acianthera odontopetala;
Orchid Flora of the Greater Antilles Ackerman 2014 drawing fide
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