Pleurothallis serpens Luer & R.Escobar 1983 SUBGENUS Pleurothallis SECTION Pleurothallis SUBSECTION Macrophyllae-Racemosae [Lindl] Luer 1986
Photo by © Alejandro Romero Medina and his Facebook Page
TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website
Common Name The Creeping Pleurothallis [refers to the rhizome]
Flower Size .4" [1 cm]
Found in Santander and Norte de Santander departments of Colombia at elevations around 2600 to 2900 meters as a miniature to just medium sized, cold growing, repent epiphyte with slender, erect ramicauls enveloped by a close tubular sheath near the middle and 1 to 2 others at the base and carrying a single, apical, suberect, thinly coriaceous, narrowly elliptical, acute, acuminate below into the slender, petiolate base leaf that blooms in the spring on a pendent, arising through a spathe at the apex of the ramicaul, .8 to 1.4" [2 to 3.5 cm] long, 2 to 3 flowered inflorescence with a shorter than the pedicel floral bract.
"Unique in the section by its repent rhizome, also characterized by the elliptical leaf acuminate at both ends, a few flowered pendent raceme, petals dilated above the base and a small transversely three lobed lip with a central pair of lunate calli. The flowers vary from purple striped to pale yellow." Luer 1999
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Orquideología 16(1): 31. Luer & Escobar 1983 drawing fide;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol III Systematics of Pleurothallis Luer 1986;
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