Pleurothallis punctulata Rolfe 1888 SUBGENUS Talpinaria [Karst] Luer 1986
Photo courtesy of Eric Hunt
Drawing by Carl Luer
Common Name The Dotted Pleurothallis
Flower Size 3/4" [2 cm]
Found in Colombia and Venezuela at elevations of 2475 to 2550 meters as a small sized, cold growing, caespitose epiphyte with slender, erect, ramicauls enveloped basally by 2 to 3 tubular sheaths and another below the middle and carrying a single, apical, erect, thickly coriaceous, blue-green glaucous below, elliptical-obovate, subacute to obtuse, rounded or broadly cuneate below in to the contracted, twisted petiolate base leaf that blooms on an erect, arising from near the apex of the ramicaul through foliacous spathe in a fascile, successively single flowered inflorescence with a thin, tubular, much shorter than the pedicel floral bracts.
"Characterized by the thick, rigid leaf that is blueish green-glaucous beneatha and sometimes mottled above. The petiole is twisted to permit the large spathe to rise along the bask surface of the leaf. A large, purple spotted flower emerges form the spathe. The sepals are obtuse and the petals are acute. The large obtuse lip is three lobed below the middle and covered by multiple, minute, purple papilae." Luer 1998
Synonyms Humboldtia punctulata (Rolfe) Kuntze 1891; Humboltia punctulata (Rolfe) Kuntze 1891; Pleurothallis magnispatha Foldats 1968; Talpinaria punctulata (Rolfe) Luer 2004
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Gard. Chron., ser. 3, 4: 756 Rolfe 1888;
Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated Vol 5 Dunsterville & Garay 1966 drawing fide;
Flora de Venezuela Foldats Volumen XV Part 2 1970 as P magnispatha drawing ok;
Orchids of Venezuela, An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 3 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 drawing fide;
Orquideologia Vol 16 No 1 1983;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol III Systematics of Pleurothallis Luer 1986;
Native Colombian Orchids Vol 3 COS 1991 photo fide;
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;
Orquideas Nativas del Tachira Cesar Fernandez 2003 photo fide;
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 Talpinaria punctulata;
Orquideologia Vol 24 #2 2006 photo fide;
AOS Bulletin Vol 78 No 1 2009 photo fide
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