Pleurothallis praealta Luer & Hirtz 1998 SUBGENUS Crocodeilanthe [Rchb.f & Warsc.]Luer 1986
Photo by © Alexander Hirtz
Photo by © The Epidendra Website
Common Name The High Elevation Pleurothallis
Flower Size .2" [5 mm]
Found in Pichincha province of Ecuador in cloud forests at elevations around 3800 as a miniature sized, cold growing, caespitose epiphyte with fasciculate, stout, erect ramicauls enveloped by 3 tubular imbricating sheaths and carying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, subacute to obtuse, cuneate below into the subpetiolate base leaf that blooms in the spring on 1 to 2, simultaneous, racemose, secund , arising through a spathe with an annulus, 7.2 to 9.2" [18 to 23 cm] long, simultaneously, densely many flowered inflorescence with a longer than the ovary floral bract.
Closely related to P jamiesonii but P praealta is distinguished by the thick, trilobed lip witha convex and decurved, triangular, anterior lobe, resembling a parrot's beak. The erect lateral are very thickened es[pecially at the base, the two lobes nearly meeting, separated only by a seep midline cleft. The lateral lobes cannot be spread without fracturing the lip." Luer 1998
Synonyms Crocodeilanthe praealta (Luer & Hirtz) Luer 2004; Stelis praealta (Luer & Hirtz) 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 Pridgeon & M.W. Chase, 2001 as Stelis praealta;
Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 4 Dodson 2003 photo good;
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 praealta
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