Pleurothallis rictoria Rchb.f. 1876 SUBGENUS Crocodeilanthe [Rchb.f & Warsc.]Luer 1986
Drawing by © Carl Luer and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website
Common Name The Open Mouth Pleurothallis [refers to the flowers]
Flower Size .2" [5 mm]
Found most likely in Antioquia department of Colombia without specific locational data as a medium sized sized, epiphyte with slender, erect ramicauls enveloped by a tubular sheath near the middle and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, subacute, cuneate below into the slender petiolate base leaf that blooms on a few, simultaneous, slender, arising through a spathe from an annulus below the abscission layer, 2 to 5.2" [5 to 13 cm] long including the 2.4" [6 cm] long peduncle, subdensely many flowered inflorescence with an oblique, shorter than the ovary floral bract.
Known only from the original collection by Warszewicz in the 1800's, this plant is said to be vegetatively the same as P velaticaulis and the flowers are similar to P pulchella but brown instead of white or yellow. "The sepals are narrowly ovate, acute and minutely ciliate. The petals are elliptical, acute and single veined. The lip is ovate with obscure, broadly rounded lobes below the middle with broadly thickened margins" Luer 1998
Synonyms Crocodeilanthe rictoria (Rchb.f.) Luer 2004; Stelis rictoria (Rchb.f.) Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; *Linnaea 41: 14 Rchb.f; 1876
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XVI Systematics of Pleurothallis SUBGEN Crocodeilanthe, Rhynchopera and Talpinaria Luer 1998 drawing fide;
Lindleyana 16(4): 266. (Ames) Pridgeon & M.W. Chase 2001 as Stelis rictoria
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 rictoria ;
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