Pleurothallis villosa Knowles & Westc.1838 SUBGENUS Specklinia SECTION Effusae Lindl. 1842
Photo by Luis Mincitar and his Flickr Orchid Photo Website
Drawing by © Carl Luer
to 
Common Name The Hairy Pleurothallis
Flower Size 3/8" [1 cm]
Found in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Costa Rica at elevations of 1500 to 2500 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cool to cold growing, caespitose epiphyte with erect, slender, slightly compressed above ramicauls enveloped by a tubualr sheath below the middle and 2 to 3, shorter sheaths above the base and carrying a single apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, subacute to obtuse, cuneate below into the sessile base leaf that blooms in the summer on a apical,lax, distichous, subflexuous, 2 to 3.6" [5 to 9 cm] long, successively single, few flowered inflorescence with tubular, shorter than the pedicel floral bracts and holds the successive opening, single flowers just above the leaves.
Cool temperatures, shade, and high humidity as well as mounting on tree fern, and good air movement assure a happy plant.
This species has often been confused with P ornata which has white appendages on the sepal margins, but this is the species that Knowles & Westcott described as a plant 4" high, a flexuous scape and at each bend bearing a wooly and purple spotted flower. No mention of appendages or lamellae which most modern references show as P villosa [schiedei] but are actually P ornata. Rchb.f in his description of P villosa [schiedei] states that it is a wooly flower which would eliminate it as a candidate for what we now know as P ornata which Rchb.f described as having short ramicauls and with conspicuous, unique, clavate appendages on the sepal margins.
Synonyms Effusiella villosa (Knowles & Westc.) Luer 2007; Humboldtia schiedei (Rchb.f.) Kuntze 1891; Humboltia schiedei (Rchb. f.) Kuntze 1891; Humboldtia villosa (Knowles & Westc.) Kuntze 1891; Humboltia villosa (Knowles & Westc.) Kuntze 1891; Pleurothallis hirsuta Ames 1908; Pleurothallis schiedei Rchb. f. 1849; Specklinia villosa (Knowles & Westc.) Luer 2004; Stelis villosa (Knowles & Westc.) Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Fl. Cab. 2: 78 Knowles & Westcott 1838;
Linnaea 22: 826 Rchb.f 1850 as P scheidei;
Revis. Gen. Pl. 2: 668 Kuntze 1891 as Humboltia scheidei;
Revis. Gen. Pl. 2: 668. Kuntze 1891 as Humboldtia villosa;
Orchidaceae 2: 270 Ames 1908 as P hirsuta drawing fide; ;
Symbolae Antillanae Vol VI pg 428 Orchidaceae Urban 1909;
Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 19: 197. Costa Rica Schlechter 1923;
AOS Bulletin Vol 30 No 5 1961;
AOS Bulletin Vol 31 No 7 1962 as P schiedei photo good;
Las Orquedias De El Salvador Vol 2 Hamer 1974 as P schiedei drawing/photo not = P ornata;
Miniature Orchids Northen 1980 photo not = P ornata;
Las Orquideas de El Salvador Vol 3 Hamer 1981 as P schiedei drawing not = P ornata;
AOS Bulletin Vol 53 No 6 1984 photo as P schiedei;
Flora Novo-Galaciana Vol 16 Orchidaceae Mc Vaugh 1985 as P schiedei not =P ornata;
An Introdution to the Orchids of Mexico Wiard 1987 as P scheidei photo not = P ornata;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol III Systematics of Pleurothallis Luer 1986 as P schiedei;
AOS Bulletin Vol 57 No 2 1988 photo as P schiedei;
AOS Bulletin Vol 62 No 1 1993 as P schiedei photo not = P ornata;
Orchid Digest Vol 58 No 4 1994 photo fide as P schiedei;
AOS Bulletin Vol 64 #12 1995 as P scheidei photo not = P ornata;
Lindleyana Vol 16 No 4:267 Pridgeon & M.W.Chase2001 as Stelis villosa;
Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica Vol 3 Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003;
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 villosa;
Orchdis of Mexico Hagsater etal 2005 as S villosa photo not = P ornata;
Icones Pleurothallidianrum Vol XXIX A Third Century of Stelis of Ecuador Systematics of Apoda-Prorepentia Luer 2007as Effusiella villosa;
Mille et Une Mini Orchideees Roguenant 2009 photo not = Pleurothallis ornata;
AOS Bulletin Vol 80 #6 2011 as Stelis villosa photo not = P ornata;
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