Pleurothallis prolificans Luer & Hirtz 1998 SUBGENUS Crocodeilanthe [Rchb.f & Warsc.]Luer 1986 <
TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer
LATE 
Common Name The Prolific Pleurothallis [refers to its production of new ramicauls from the apex of older ones]
Flower Size .2" [5 mm]
Found in Pichincha province of Ecuador in cloud forests at elevations 2400 to 2600 meters as a miniature sized, cold growing, scandent epiphyte with proliferating, stout to slender, erect to suberect ramicauls enveloped by a close, tubular sheath near the middle and 2 to 3 others at the base and carying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, narrwoly ovate, acute, cuneate below into the shortly petiolate base leaf that blooms in the late summer to fall on a on 1 to occasionally 2, racemose, slender, distichous to secund, arising through a spathe with an annulus, 8 to 16" [20 to 40 cm] long, simultaneously, densely many flowered inflorescence with an infundibular, longer than the ovary floral bract.
"There are 4 prolific species in the subgenera, P prolificans, P expansa, P galerasensis, and P virgata but this one has ovate, very acute leaves , an inonspiculous =spathe, one to occasionally 2 long racemes and flowers similar to P pilifera which at one time was considered synomonous with P prolificans." Luer 1998
Synonyms Crocodeilanthe prolificans (Luer & Hirtz) Luer 2004; Stelis prolificans (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 prolificans;
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 prolificans
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------