Pleurothallis pachypus (F.Lehm. & Kraenzl.) Garay 1956 SUBGENUS Crocodeilanthe [Rchb.f & Warsc.]Luer 1986
Photo by © Modesto Zarate B. and The Parque Nacional Carrasco, Cochabamba Bolivia, Orquideas del Proyecto Hidroelectrico Ivirizu Website
Drawing by © Carl Luer and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website
Common Name or Meaning The Thick Footed Pleurothallis [refers to the thick bases of the ramicauls]
Flower Size .24" [6 mm]
Found in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia at elevations around 1400 to 2800 meters as a miniature to small sized, cool to cold growing, densely caespitose epiphyte with an erect, fasciculate, slender, slightly thickened basally ramicauls enveloped by a loose, tubular sheath below the middle and 2 to 3 others at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, narrowly elliptical, acute to subacute, narrowly cuneate below into the slender, petiolate base leaf that blooms in the summer and fall on a .08" [2 mm] long,arising and concealed within a reclining spathe at the base of the leaf, successively single, few flowered inflorescence with a tubular, infundibular, longer than the ovary floral bract
"Superficially resembles a Stelis and indeed is related to P stellidopsis. The ramicauls are fasciculate with imbricating sheaths. The slender inflorescence surpasses the leaf. The tiny sepals are obtuse and concave, the petals are broad and single veined and the lip is subquadrate with a callus at either corner of the broad, obtuse apex." Luer 1998
Synonyms Crocodeilanthe pachypus (F.Lehm. & Kraenzl.) Luer 2004; Pleurothallis quadrata C.Schweinf. 1942; *Stelis pachypus F.Lehm. & Kraenzl. 1899
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 26: 447 F.Lehm. & Kraenzl. 1899 as Stelis pachypus;
Bot. Mus. Leafl. 10: 184 Schweinfurth 1942 as P quadrata;
*Canad. J. Bot. 34: 254 Garay 1956;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol III Systematics of Pleurothallis Luer 1986 as P quadrata;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XVI Systematics of Pleurothallis SUBGEN Crocodeilanthe, Rhynchopera and Talpinaria Luer 1998 drawing fide;
Orchids of Bolivia Vasquez & Ibisch Vol 1 2000 drawing fide;
Lindleyana Vol 16 No 4;265 Pridgeon & M W Chase 2001 as Stelis pachypus
The Parque Nacional Carrasco, Cochabamba Bolivia, Orquideas del Proyecto Hidroelectrico Ivirizu Website 2021 as Stelis pachypus photo 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 Crocodeilanthe pachypus
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