Pleurothallis ramulosa Lindl. 1859 SUBGENUS Acuminatia SECTION Acuminatae Luer 1986
Drawing by © Carl Luer and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website
LATER
Common Name The Branched Pleurothallis [refers to the prolific plant habit]
Flower Size .4" [1 cm]
Found in Ecuador, Colombia and northwestern Venezuela at elevations around 1500 to 2700 meters as a mini-miniature to small sized, cool to cold growing, caespitose below, prolific above epiphyte with slender to stout, erect, prolific ramicauls enveloped by a thin, tubular sheath below the middle and 2 to 3 other ones at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, subacute to obtuse, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the later spring through fall on a loose, arising through a spathe from an annulus below the apex of the ramicaul, subsecund, slender, strict, up to 4 to 10" [10 to 25 cm] long including the .8 to 2" [2 to 5 cm] long peduncle, simultaneously several to many flowered inflorescence with a longer than the pedicel floral bract and carrying sweet scented flowers.
This species is very similar to P sclerophyla in most all respects other than the scandent habit of this species. The distinguishing feature of the flowers is that P ramulosa has an oblong lip without the midline callus and without tall sidelobe margins below the middle. The apex of the column is not as beaked as in P sclerophylla.
Synonyms Anathallis ramulosa (Lindl.) Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001; Humboltia ramulosa (Lindl.) Kuntze 1891; Pleurothallis superposita Schltr. 1916; Specklinia ramulosa (Lindl.) Luer 2004; Stelis catenata Karremans 2014
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
*Fol. Orchid. 9: 33 Lindley 1859;
Revis. Gen. Pl. 2: 668 Kuntze 1891 as Humboltia ramulosa;
Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 14: 386 Schlechter 1916 as Pleurothallis superposita
Selbyana 3: 178 Luer 1976 drawing fide;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol I Systematics of thePleurothallidinae Luer 1986;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol III Systematics of Pleurothallis Luer 1986;
Lindleyana Vol 16 No 4:250 Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001 as Anathallis ramulosa ;
Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 4 Dodson 2003 drawing 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 Specklinia ramulosa;
LANKESTERIANA 13(3): 319—332 Kerremans 2014 as Stelis catenata
Orchid Digest Vol 80 #2 2016 as Anathallis ramulosa;
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