Pleurothallis pennelliana Luer 1998 SUBGENUS Crocodeilanthe [Rchb.f & Warsc.]Luer 1986

TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer and The Epidendra Orchid Website

Common Name Pennell's Pleurothallis [American Collector of Species]

Flower Size .4" [1 cm]

Found in Cundinamarca department of Colombia at elevations around 1900 to 3200 meters as a miniature sized, cold growing, caespitose epiphyte with ascending, fasciculate, erect ramicauls with a close, tubular sheath near the middle and 2 to 3, close, imbricating others at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, narrowly elliptical-oblong, subacute to obtuse, narrowly cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the fall on a slender, lateral, arising from a slender spathe, 6.8 to 9.2" [17 to 23 cm] long, simultaneously many flowered inflorescence with a tubular, as long as to much shorter than the pedicel floral bract.

"Similar to the P ligulata group this species is distinguished by the slender, densely fasciculated, ascending ramicauls. The elliptical, petiolate leaves are broader than those of P ligulata. The flowers borne in shorter racemes, are larger and yellow green with the sepals long-ciliate. The petals are veined in purple. The lip is oblong, dilated below the middle, with the sides erect. A pair of low, rounded calli are present near the middle near the margins." Luer 1998

Synonyms Crocodeilanthe pennelliana (Luer) Luer 2004; Stelis pennelliana (Luer) Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

* Selbyana 3: 160 Luer 1976 sa P pennellia drawing fide;

Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XVI Systematics of Pleurothallis SUBGEN Crocodeilanthe, Rhynchopera and Talpinaria Luer 1998 drawing fide;

Lindleyana Vol 16 No 4:265 Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001 as Stelis penneliana;

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 pennelliana

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------