Pleurothallis oscitans Ames 1934 SUBGENUS Didactylus Luer 2004
Photo/Drawing by © Bogarin and Lankestriana 12(1): Karremans and Bogarin 2012
TYPE Drawing by © Oakes Ames and The Epidendra Website
Common Name The Sleepy Pleurothallis [referes to the flaccid inflorescence]
Flower Size .2" [5 mm]
Found in Cortez departemnt of Honduras, Heridia province of Costa Rica, Panama and Ecuador at elevations around 200 to 700 meters as a small sized, hot to warm growing caespitose epiphyte with purple, slender, erect, horizontal to descending ramicauls enveloped by a tubualr sheath below the middle and 2 to 3 others at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, purple suffused, elliptical-ovate, acute, cuneate or rounded below into the sessile base leaf that blooms in the summer on a pendent, 32. to 4.4" [8 to 11 cm] long, flaccid, distichous, simultaneously few flowered inflorescence arising through a spathe at the base of the leaf with infundibular, containing the pedicel and much of the ovary floral bracts.
"Pleurothallis oscitans is most similar to P butcheri from which it can be distinguished by the elliptic-ovate leaves, the flower with the tip of the dorsal sepal connate to the synsepal (reminiscent of the flowers of some Zootrophion spp.), the synsepal with revolute margins and the lip narrowly ovate and ciliate. Luer (2005) placed P oscitans, P butcheri (also known from Costa Rica) and the Ecuadorian Pleurothallis paradoxa Luer & Dalström and Pleurothallis thysana Luer & J.Portilla together in the subgenus Didactylus." Bogarin 2012
Synonyms Acianthera oscitans (Ames) Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001; Didactylus oscitans (Ames) Luer 2005
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Bot. Mus. Leafl. 2(2): 25-27. Ames 1934 type drawing;
Selbyana 3: 154 Luer 1976 drawing fide;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol III Systematics of Pleurothallis Luer 1986
Lindleyana 16(4): 245. Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001. as Acianthera oscitans;
Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 4 Dodson 2003 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 Didactylus oscitans;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVII Dryadella and Acronia section Macrophyllae-Fasiculatae Luer 2005 as Didactylus oscitans;
Lankestriana 12(1): Karremans and Bogarin 2012 as Acianthera oscitans Drawing/photo fide;
Pleurothallids Neotropical Jewels Vol 1 Karremans & Viera 2020 as Acianthera oscitans photo fide '
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