Pleurothallis pidax Luer 1979
Photos courtesy of Danny Lentz ©, plant grown by Atlanta Botanical Garden
Drawing by © Carl Luer
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Found in Los Rios, Cotopaxi and Pichincha provinces of Ecuador at elevations of 200 to 1500 meters as a small to medium sized, hot to cool growing, caespitose epiphyte with stout, terete ramicauls enveloped by a large, loose, tubular sheath below the middle and 1 to 2 others at the base and carrying a single, apical, coriaceous, elliptical to suborbicular, obtuse to rouned, minutely retuse and apiculate, cuneate below into the channeled petiolate base leaf that blooms in the summer and fall on an erect, arising through a spathe at the base of the leaf petiole, 3.2 to 8.8" [8 to 22 cm] long including the slender peduncle, distichous, densely many flowered inflorescence with thin, as long as the ovary floral bractsw and carrying pale yellow green, infrequently rose colored flowers.
"Closely related to P gelida but P pidax occurs at lower elevations and is distinguished by usually more numerous racemes that are usually shorter than the leaves , smaller flowers with shortly ciliate sepals, the petals thickened towards the apex, the ecallous lip and the broadly winged column." Luer 1981
Synonyms Anathallis pidax (Luer) Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001; Niphantha pidax Luer 2007; Specklinia pidax (Luer) Luer 2004; Stelis pidax (Luer) Karremans 2015
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 249 Dodson 1980 drawing fide;
Lindleyana 16: 250 Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001 as Anathallis pidax;
Icones Pleurothallidianrum Vol XXIX A Third Century of Stelis of Ecuador Systematics of Apoda-Prorepentia Luer 2007as Niphantha pidax nom invalid;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVI Lepanthes of Bolivia Systematics of Octomeria Luer 2010 as Niphantha pidax
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