Pleurothallis petroana Sierra-Ariza 2023 SUBGENUS Pleurothallis SECTION Macrophyllae-Fasciculatae Lindl 1859
LCDP Photo by Sierra-Ariza and TYPE Drawing by © A. Albino Bohorquez and LANKESTERIANA 23(1) TWO NEW SPECIES OF PLEUROTHALLIS (PLEUROTHALLIDINAE) SUBSECTION MACROPHYLLAE-FASCICULATAE FROM THE CENTRAL ANDES OF COLOMBIA Mario Alexei Sierra-Ariza 2023
EARLIER 
Common Name or Meaning Petro's Pleurothallis [In honor of Gustavo Francisco Petro Urrego, President of the Republic of Colombia (2022–2026), in commemoration of his political career; winner of the Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award (2007); tireless supporter of social causes and interest in caring for the environment and mitigating climate change current]
Flower Size .4" [1 cm]
Found in Tolima department of Colombia in a fragment of wet premontane forest on thin branches and among a sparse covering of bryophytes in constant shade or on roadside ravines with high solar radiation at elevations of 3000 to 3200 meters as a small sized, cold growing, caespitose epiphyte and occasiaonal terrestrial with erect to suberect, yellow-green ramicauls enveloped by a tubular, papyraceous, light brown sheath in the lower third and 2 others at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, light green, bright, coriaceous, minutely papillate ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, cordate below into the sessile base leaf that blooms in the earlier summer on a terete, green, .36 to .44" [9 to 11 mm] long, peduncle enclosed at the base by a spathaceous bract, fascicle of successive flowers, one flower, rarely with two simultaneous flowers, few flowered inflorescence with a tubular, papyraceous, acute, shorter than the pedicel floral bract.
"Pleurothallis petroana is similar to P. scabrilinguis, but the new species differs by an oblong-lanceolate dorsal sepal (vs. oblong-ovate), an ovate synsepal (vs. broadly ovate), linear, acuminate petals (vs. narrowly linear-triangular, acute) and a lip ovate-lanceolate, verrucose-papillose, slightly pilose (vs. ob-long-triangular, subacute or rounded, papillose), with a spathulate glenion (vs. obovate, slightly bilobed). The new species is also similar to Pleurothallis paquishae , but it differs in the oblong-lanceolate dorsal sepal, (vs. narrowly elliptic, the synsepal elliptical, acute to acuminate (vs. ovate acute); the petals linear, acuminate, (vs. narrowly linear-oblong, acute); the lip oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, verrucose-papillose, slightly pilose (vs. oblong, acute, verrucose-spiculated) and the glenion spathulate (vs. oblong, slightly bilobed). Another similar species is P. applanata, but P. petroana differs by the dorsal sepal oblong-lanceolate, acute, (vs. narrowly elliptical-ovate); the petals linear, acuminate, (vs. narrowly linear-triangular, ; the lip oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, verrucose-papillose, slightly pilose (vs. oblong-ovate, obtuse, cellular-verrucose) and the spathulate glenion (vs. orbicular)." Sierra-Aziz 2023
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; LANKESTERIANA 23(1) TWO NEW SPECIES OF PLEUROTHALLIS (PLEUROTHALLIDINAE) SUBSECTION MACROPHYLLAE-FASCICULATAE FROM THE CENTRAL ANDES OF COLOMBIA Mario Alexei Sierra-Ariza 2023 drawing/photo fide
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