Pleurothallis elegans (Kunth) Lindl. 1842 SUBGENUS Crocodeilanthe [Rchb.f & Warsc.]Luer 1986
Drawing by © Carl Luer and Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria
Common Name The Elegant Pleurothallis
Flower Size .4" [1 cm]
Found in Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador at elevations of 300 to 3700 meters as a small to medium sized, cold growing, densely caespitose epiphyte or terrestrial with fasiculate, stout, erect ramicauls enveloped by a loose tubular sheath near the middle and 2 imbricate others at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptic, subacute to obtuse, cuneate below into the subpetiolate base leaf that blooms in the spring summer and fall on several, racemose, simultaneous, arising through a spathe and an annulus just below the abscission layer, slender, more or less distichous, 4 to 10" [10 to 25 cm] long, subdensly and simultaneously many flowered inflorescence with an as long as to shorter than the ovary floral bract and carrying faintly fragrant flowers.
"Distinguished by the large flowers and a proportionally large, suborbicular lip with the usual pair of calli obscure. The color of the sepals varies from yellow to rose with rose spots." Luer 1998 as P elegans
Synonyms Crocodeilanthe elegans (Kunth) Luer 2004; Dendrobium elegans Kunth 1816; Humboltia roseopunctata (Lindl.) Kuntze 1891; Pleurothallis roseopunctata Lindl. 1846 ; Specklinia elegans (Kunth) Lindl. 1835; Stelis elegans (Kunth) Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001; Stelis picta Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2002; Stelis roseopunctata (Lindl.) ined;
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
Nov. Gen. Sp. 1: 358 F.W.H.von Humboldt, A.J.A.Bonpland & C.S.Kunth 1816 as Dendrobium elegans;
Edwards's Bot. Reg. 21: t. 1797 Lindley 1835 as Specklinia elegans;
Edwards's Bot. Reg. 28(Misc.): 70 Lindley 1842 as P elegans;
* Orchid. Linden.: 2 Lindley 1846 as P roseopunctata;
Revis. Gen. Pl. 2: 668 Kuntze 1891 as Humboltia roseopunctata;
Revis. Gen. Pl. 2: 667 Kuntze 1891 as Humboltia elegans
Die Orchideen Schlechter [3]:178 1915 as P elegans;
Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965 as P elegans;
Flora de Venezuela Volumen 15 Parte 2 Foldats 1970 as P elegans drawing ok;
Flora de Venezuela Foldats Volumen XV Part 2 1970 drawing fide;
Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated Vol 5 Dunsterville & Garay 1975 drawing ok to drawing;
Orchids of Venezuela, An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 3 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 ok to drawing;
Venezuela; Paraiso de Orquideas Romero 1997 photo fide;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol III Systematics of Pleurothallis Luer 1986;
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 as P elegans drawing ok to drawing;
Lindleyana Vol 16 No 4:263 Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001 as Stelis elegans
Lindleyana Vol 17 2:100 Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2002 as Stelis picta
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 elegans; Phytoneuron 2015-22: 5 R Bernal 2015 as Stelis roseopunctata;
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