Pleurothallis pruinosa Lindl. 1842 SUBGENUS Pleurothallis SECTION Pleurothallis SUBSECTION Longiracemosae [Luer] Luer 1998
Photo by © Daniel Jimenez.
Photo by © Jay Pfahl
Photo by Eric Hunt, plant grown by OrchidMania
Drawing by Carl Luer
to 
Common Name The Frosted Pleurothallis
Flower Size 1/4" [6 mm]
Found in Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Leewards, Puerto Rico, Trinidad, Windwards, Venezuela, Fr Guiana, Guyana, Surinam, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Brazil in coffee plantations and wet montane forests at elevations of 150 to 2700 meters as a miniature, hot to cold growing, caespitose, unifoliate epiphyte with erect, thin ramicauls enveloped basally by 2 tight, scarious sheaths and carrying a single, apical, coriaceous, elliptic-oblong or lanceolate, minutely tridentate apically, gradually narrowing below into the conduplicate base leaf that blooms in the spring, summer and fall on a 1 or 2, terminal, short, lax, simultaneously few [1 to 3] flowered racemose inflorescence with an as long as the pedicel floral bract carrying a few insignificant, pleasingly fragrant flowers that are held out and away at midleaf.
Distinguished by slender ramicauls carrying narrow, thickly coriaceous leaves that blooms on a loose raceme. The petals are narrow, nearly as long as the sepals and the triangular lip has obtuse angles." Luer 1999
Photo by Jay- Epiphyte low on shaded tree trunk above Lake Arenal at approximately 1200 meters in elevation.
Synonyms Humboldtia pruinosa (Lindl.) Kuntze; Humboltia pruinosa (Lindl.) Kuntze 1891; Pleurothallis brachyglottis Rchb.f. 1865; Pleurothallis flavida (H. Focke) Lindl. 1859; Pleurothallis pauciflora Schltr. 1923; Stelis flavida H. Focke 1849
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI
Edwards's Bot. Reg. 28(Misc.): 75 Lindley 1842;
Symbolae Antillanae Vol VI Orchidaceae Urban 1909;
Flora of Jamaica Fawcett & Rendle 1910;
Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 19: 192. Costa Rica Schlechter 1923 as P pauciflora;
Flore Descriptive des Antilles Francaises H. Stehle 1939 drawing ok;
The Orchids of Panama L.O. Williams & P Allen 1946;
Native Orchids of Trinidad Schultes 1960;
Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated Vol 2 Dunsterville & Garay 1961 drawing fide;
AOS Bulletin Vol 38 No 6 1969;
Flora de Venezuela Volumen 15 Parte 2 Foldats 1970 drawing fide;
Flora of the Lesser Antilles Garay & Sweet 1974 drawing fide;
Selbyana 1: 266 Luer 1975 drawing fide;
Orchidaceae Brasilensis Band 1 Pabst & Dungs 1975 drawing good;
Orchids of Venezuela, An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 3 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 drawing fide;
Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 252 Dodson 1980 drawing fide;
Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 1121 Dodson 1984 drawing fide;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol III Systematics of Pleurothallis Luer 1986;
The Orchids of Surinam Werkhoven 1986;
Catologo Descriptivo de Las Orquideas Cubanas Acuna 1987 as P brachyglottis;
Native Orchids of the Eastern Carribean Kenny 1988 photo good;
Orchids Travel By Air A Pictoral Safari Mulder, Mulder-Roelfsema and Schuiteman 1990 photo fide;
An Orchid Flora Of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands Ackerman 1995 drawing fide;
Orchidaceae Antillanae Nir 2000 as P brachyglottis;
Orchidaceae Antillanae Nir 2000;
Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 3 Ramiro and Carnevali 2000 drawing fide;
Orquideas Nativas del Tachira Cesar Fernandez 2003 photo ok;
Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica Vol 3 Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003;
Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana Vol 7 Steyermark, Berry, Yatskievych and Holst 2003;
Systematics and evolution of the genus Pleurothallis R. Br. (Orchidaceae) in the Greater Antilles Hagen Stenzel 2004 drawing fide;
Orquideas de la Serrania del Baudo Misas Urreta 2006 drawing/photo fide;
Orchids of Costa Rica Vol 5 Morales 2009 photo fide;
Orchid Flora of the Greater Antilles Ackerman 2014
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