Pleurothallis pulchella (Kunth) Lindl. 1830 SUBGENUS Crocodeilanthe [Rchb.f & Warsc.]Luer 1986
Photo by © Andreas Kaye and his Flickr Orchid Photo Website
Another Flower? no Photo by © Wilfried Löderbusch
Photo by Senghas/ Drawing by © Carl Luer and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website
TYPE Drawing of the basionym Stelis pulchella
TYPE Drawing of the basionym Stelis pulchella by © Kunth
Common Name or Meaning The Beautiful Pleurothallis
Flower Size .2" [5mm]
Found in Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Peru at elevations of 1300 to 3200 meters as a medium sized, cool to cold growing, densely caespitose epiphyte with slender, erect, fasciculate ramicauls enveloped basally by several, tubular, imbricating sheaths and another near the middle and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, narrowly elliptical, acute to subacute to narrowly rounded, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms on 1 to 3, simulataneous, arising from an annulus and through slender spathe, racemose, secund, densely and simultaneously many flowered, 4 to 7.2" [10 to 18 cm] long inflorescence with a shorter than the pedicel floral bract.
"Vegetatively very similar to P ligulata but differs in the three veined petals and the oblong lip with variously callous margins at and below the middle. P floribunda and P velaticaulis have the same lip as P pulchellus but they differ in the slender stature, the narrow petiolate leaves and ramicauls sometimes more or less thickened towards the base with several imbricating sheaths. One to a very few slender racemes about as long as or longer than the leaf are produced from a small, narrow spathe. The small flowers are basically similar to most in the subgenus are simple with one veined petals. The lip is three lobed with the lateral keels erect, obtuse and callous." Luer 1998
Synonyms Crocodeilanthe pulchella (Kunth) Luer 2004; Humboldtia naraniensis (Rchb.f.) Kuntze 1891; Humboldtia pulchella (Kunth) Kuntze 1891; Humboldtia sphenochila (Lindl.) Kuntze 1891; Pleurothallis bogotensis Schltr. 1924; Pleurothallis ecuadorensis Schltr.1915; Pleurothallis lloensis Schltr. 1921; Pleurothallis naraniensis Rchb.f. 1866; Pleurothallis pteroglossa Schltr. 1920; Pleurothallis sphenochila Lindl. 1859; *Stelis pulchella Kunth 1816
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
Nov. Gen. Sp. (quarto ed.) 1(4): 364, t. 90. Kunth 1816 as Stelis pulchella drawing fide;
* Gen. Sp. Orchid. Pl.: 7 Lindley 1830;
Bonplandia Rchb.f 1855;
Fol. Orchid. 9: 22 Lindley 1859 as P sphenochila;
Beitr. Orchid.-K. C. Amer. 96-97. Rchb. f. 1866 as P naraniensis;
Revis. Gen. Pl. 2: 668. Kuntze, 1891 as Humboldtia pulchella;
Revis. Gen. Pl. 2: 668. Kuntze, 1891 as Humboldtia naraniensis;
Revis. Gen. Pl. 2: 668. Kuntze, 1891 as Humboldtia sphenochila;
Die Orchideen Schlechter 1915;
Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 14: 129 Schelchter 1915 as P ecuadorensis;
Die Orchideen der Sudamerikanischen Kordillerenstaaten II Colombia Schlechter 1920 as P pteroglossa;
Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 8: 59 Schlechter 1921 as P lloensis;
Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 7: 112 Schlechter 1920 as P pteroglossa;
Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 27: 162 Schlechter 1924 nom. illeg. as P bogotense;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XVI Systematics of Pleurothallis SUBGEN Crocodeilanthe, Rhynchopera and Talpinaria Luer 1998 drawing fide;
Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 3 Ramiro and Carnevali 2000 drawing fide; Lindleyana Vol 16 No 4 Pridgeon & M W Chase 2001 as Stelis pulchella;
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 Crocodeilanthe pulchella;
Orchids of Costa Rica Vol 5 Morales 2009 photo not?; AOS Bulletin Vol 86 #3 2016 as Stelis pulchella drawing fide;
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