Pleurothallis platystylis Schltr. 1912 SUBGENUS Dracontia SECTION Dracontia Luer 1986
Photo by © Andy Phillips and Andy's Orchids Website
Photo by Noble Bashor.
Drawing by © Hamer
to 
Common Name The Broad Column Pleurothallis
Flower Size about 1/2" [about 1.2 cm]
Found in Hidalgo, Puebla, Veracruz, Oaxaca and Chiapas states of Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua in cloud forests on steep slopes as a small to medium sized, hot to cool growing, caespitose epiphyte that occurs at elevations of 150 to 2000 meters with a terete ramicaul enveloped completely by tubular, scarious sheaths carrying a single, apical, ovate, retuse, attenuate into the short petiolate base leaf that blooms in the summer and winter, on 1 to 2, apical, arising througha narrow spathe, erect to pendulous, 4 to 8" [10 to 20 cm] long, racemose, simultaneously several to many [12 to 20] flowered inflorescence with just short to as long as the pedicel floral bracts and carrying flowers all facing the same direction.
Oaxaca Mx., 2073 meters elev. on Gulf side of mountains north of Oaxaca city, epiphytic and very common.
Similar to P sclerophylla but differs in having a different shaped lip, non-long attenuate sepals and they are not hairy on the inside.
"This species has wandered in different genera without being clearly placed amongst its closest relatives. Pridgeon and Chase (2001) believed it to be an Anathallis Barb.Rodr. However, Luer (2000) treated it within Pleurothallis subgen. Effusia Luer, which he latter recognized as a distinct genus under the name Effusiella Luer. Karremans (2011) believed that the obtuse petals, three-lobed lip, helm-shaped anther cap that protrudes beyond the tip of the column, among other features, were suggestive of a Dracontia affinity. Pleurothallis cobanensis Schltr. and P oblongifolia as being its closest relatives." Karremans and M Diaz 2017
Synonyms Anathallis platystylis (Schltr.) Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001; Effusiella platystylis Luer 2007; Pleurothallis bernoullii Schltr. 1918; Specklinia platystylis (Schltr.) Luer 2004; Stelis platystylis (Schltr.) Solano & Soto Arenas 2008
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 10: 395 Schlechter 1912;
Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 15: 204 Schlechter 1918 as P bernoullii;
Orchids of Guatemala and Belize Ames & Correll 1952;
Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965;
Las Orquedias de El Salvador Vol 2 Hamer 1974 drawing good/photo ok;
Las Orquideas de El Salvador Vol 3 Hamer 1981 drawing ok;
Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 1120 Dodson 1984 drawing ok;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol III Systematics of PleurothallisLuer 1986;
Lindleyana Vol 16 No 4:250 Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001 as Anathallis platystylis;
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 Specklinia platystylis;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXIX A Third Century of Stelis of Ecuador Systematics of Apoda-Prorepentia Luer 2007 as Effusiella platystylis;
Icones Orchidacearum fascile 10 plate 1097 Hagsater & Soto 2008 as Stelis platystylis drawing fide;
AOS Bulletin Vol 80 #9 2011 photo fide;
AOS Bulletin Vol 85 #12 2016 as Stelis platystylis photo fide;
LANKESTERIANA 17(2) Karremans and M Diaz 2017 photo/drawing fide;
Diversity of Pleurothallidinae in Guatemala: An Endangered Orchid Subtribe with High Economic and Horticultural Potentials Edgar Mo Mo, Cetzal, Basu and Vega 2017 as Anathallis platystylis photo fide;
Diversity of Pleurothallidinae in Guatemala: An Endangered Orchid Subtribe with High Economic and Horticultural Potentials Edgar Mo Mo, Cetzal, Basu and Vega 2017 as Stelis platystylis photo fide;
LANKESTERIANA 17(2): 197 Karremans and M Diaz 2017 as Stelis platystylis photo/drawing fide;
Orchid Genera and Species in Guatemala Archila, Szlachchetko, Chiron, Lipinska, Mystkowska and Bertolini 2018 as Acianthera platystylis photo fide;
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