Pleurothallis prognatha Luer & R.Escobar 1983 SUBGENUS Acianthera [Scheidw.] Luer 1986
Photo by © Andreas Philipp
TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer
Common Name The Protusive Jaw Pleurothallis [An allusion to the Bulldog-like toothy appearance of the flowers]
Flower Size .2" [5 mm]
Found in Norte de Santander department of Colombia in cloud forests at elevations of 650 to 1800 meters as a small sized, warm to cool growing, shortly repent epiphyte with suberect to horizontal, winged above, terete below ramicauls enveloped by a tubular sheath at the base and another above and carrying a single, apical, spreading, thickly coriaceous, elliptical, obtuse to rounded, cuneate and decurrent base leaf that blooms in the spring on a prostrate, arising through a short spathe, 1.2 to 1.4" [3 to 3.5 cm] long, distichous, racemose, simultaneously, 6 to 7 flowered inflorescence with transluscent, longer than the ovary floral bracts .
" Characterized by a congested raceme of orange flowers lying upon a thick, elliptical, leaf. The sepals are long-apiculate, but that of the dorsal sepals held between the lateral sepals. With the margins of the sepals recurved, lateral openings into the flower are created, reminiscent of species of Zootrophion. The long lacerate petals and verrucose lip are visibler throught he windows." Luer 2004
Synonyms Acianthera prognatha (Luer & R.Escobar) Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
*Orquideologia Vol 16 No 1 1983 drawing;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol III Systematics of Pleurothallis Luer 1986;
Native Colombian Orchids Vol 3 COS 1991 photo fide;
Lindleyana Vol 16 No 4:245 Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001 as Acianthera prognantha;
Orquideas Nativas del Tachira Cesar Fernandez 2003 photo fide;
Pleurothallids Neotropical Jewels Vol 1 Karremans & Viera 2020 as Acianthera prognantha photo fide
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