Pleurothallis psilantha Luer 1998 SUBGENUS Unciferia Luer 1998
Photo by © Daniel Jimenez and his Flickr Orchid Photo Website
Another Flower not See discussion below
Photo by © Carola Pahl
TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer
Common Name The Hairless Pleurothallis [refers to the hairless sepals]
Flower Size .2" [5mm]
Found in Heredia province of Costa Rica at elevations around 1100 to 2000 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cool growing epiphyte with slender, erect ramicauls enveloped basally by 2 to 3 thin, tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriacecous, obovate, obtuse to rounded apically, subpetiolate base leaf that blooms in the spring and fall on an erect, arising from the apex of the ramicaul, subdense, secund, longer than the leaf, 1.6 to 4" [4 to 10 cm] long, simultaneously several flowered, racemose inflorescence with oblique, acute, as lopng as the pedicel floral bracts
"Vegetatively this species is smaller than the usual P segoviensis It is distinguished by the short, secund, simultanelously flowered raceme barely borne beyond the tips of the leaves by a slender peduncle, the average sized flower that are totally glabrous, , sepals that are thickly carinate and a three lobed lip with narrow, acute, uncinate lobes. A pair of carinae extend forward from the lobes onto the disc and the surface of the disc below the middle is slightly thickened and smooth devoid of any callus or channel." Luer 1998
CAUTION I have my doubts about the second photo determination. The first photo by Daniel Jimenez is correct. The scientific name specifically means the hairless sepal, and there is hair on the dorsal sepal of this plant, The only species in the section Uncifera that I know of with hair on the dorsal sepal is P ancistra from Ecuador, I am working to find out if the location of this plant can be ascertained. It also would not be the first time that an Ecuadorian species ended up in Costa Rica or vice versa without Panama and Colombia.
Synonyms Stelis psilantha (Luer) Pridgeon & M.W. Chase 2001
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
Lindleyana Vol 16 No 4 Pridgeon & M.W. Chase 2001 as Stelis psilantha;
Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica Vol 3 Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003;
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 Uncifera psilantha;
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