Pleurothallis scansor Luer 1981 SUBGENUS Crocodeilanthe [Rchb.f & Warsc.]Luer 1986
TYPE Drawing by Carl Luer
LATE
Common Name or Meaning The Climbing Pleurothallis [refers to the creeping habit]
Flower Size .24" [6 mm]
Found in Cauca and Nariño departments of Colombia and Carchi and Susumbios provinces of Ecuador at elevations around 2700 to 3200 meters as a miniature sized, cold growing, repent epiphyte or terrestrial with more or less fasciculate, ascending, stout ramicauls enveloped by loose imbricating tubular sheaths and carrying a single, erect, coriaceous, elliptical-oblong, obtuse, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the late spring summer and fall on a single, erect, slender, more or less secund, peduncle 2.8 to 4" [7 to 10 cm] long, arising through a slender spathe .6 to 1" [1.5 to 2.5 cm] long, from an annulus below the apex of the ramicaul, rachis 3.2 to 10" [8 to 25 cm] long, densely and simultaneously many flowered inflorescence, with the infundibular longer than the pedicels floral bract and carrying flowers with yellow-orange to yellow-green sepals, transluscent brown petals and a fleshy brown lip.
"Most similar to P cuatrecasasii with both having ascending rhizomes. The ramicauls arise irregularily, the leaves are shortly petiolate and far exceeded by a long, many flowered raceme subtended by a slender spathe. The yellowish sepals are glabrous, the petals are oblong and 3 veined and the lip is 3 lobed, the anterior lobe ovate and obtuse and the lateral lobes rounded and erect with intramural calli. P cuatrecasasii has an oblong lip with a pair of central calli." Luer 1998
Synonyms Crocodeilanthe scansor (Luer) Luer 2004; Stelis reptans Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2002; Stelis scansor (Luer) Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001 nom illeg.
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Phytologia 49: 216 Luer 1981;
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;
Lindleyana Vol 16 No 4:266 Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001 as Stelis reptans;
Lindleyana Vol 16 No 4:266 Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001 as Stelis scansor;
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 Crocodielanthe scansor
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