Pleurothallis patateensis Luer 1998 SUBGENUS Crocodeilanthe [Rchb.f & Warsc.]Luer 1986
TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer and The Epidendra Orchid Website
Common Name The Patate Pleurothallis [A community near where the species was first collected]
Flower Size .2" [5mm]
Found in Tungurahua province of Ecuador in cloud forests at elevations of 3050 meters as a miniature sized, cold growing, densely caespitose epiphyte with fasciculate, slender, erect enveloped by a tubualr sheath about the middle and 2 to 3 imbricating sheaths at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, subacute to obtuse, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the spring on 2 to 3, subsecund, subdense, arising through a slender spathe, 2.4 to 4.4" [6 to 11 cm] long, simultaneously several flowered inflorescence with an infundibular, as long as the pedicel floral bract.
"Related to the P ligulata group this species is distinguished by the broad, long petiolate leaves that area not surpassed by the inflorescence of purple flowers. The sepals are microscopically pubescent within. The petals are 3 veined with a rounded apex. The calli of the lip are prominent, rounded and erect. Although the flower parts fall within the limits acceptable for P ligulata the distinctive vegetative feature set this taxon apart." Luer 1998
Synonyms Crocodeilanthe patateensis (Luer) Luer 2004; Stelis patateensis (Luer) Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XVI Systematics of Pleurothallis SUBGEN Crocodeilanthe, Rhynchopera and Talpinaria Luer 1998 drawing fide;
Lindleyana 16(4): 265. (Ames) Pridgeon & M.W. Chase 2001 as Stelis pataeensis;
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 pataeensis
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