Pleurothallis sicariopsis Luer 1981 SUBGENUS Acianthera [Scheidw.] Luer 1986

TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Websit

Common Name The P sicaria-Like Pleurothallis

Flower Size .2" [5 mm]

Found in Cotopaxi, Morona-Santiago and Zamora-Chinchipe provinces of Ecuador at elevations around 1200 to 1500 meters as a small to just medium sized, cool growing, shortly repent to caespitose epiphyte with sharply three winged, erect, gradually widening above ramicauls enveloped by 2 to 3 thin, tubular sheaths at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, thinly coriaceous, elliptical-ovate, acute, the margins continuous with the ramicaul wings below into the sessile base leaf that blooms in the summer on a short, reclinging, arising through a spathe at the apex of the ramicaul, in a fascile of congested, to .4 to .6" [1 to 1.5 cm] long including the .2" [5 mm] long peduncle, simultaneously 2 to 6 flowered inflorescence with longer to shorter than the pedicel floral bracts.

Similar to the the highly variable P sicaria but differs in the fleshier, obtuse sepals that form a prominent mentum below the column foot, the long-apiculate petals and a densely muricate lip.

Synonyms Acianthera sicariopsis (Luer) Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

* Phytologia 49: 217 Luer 1981;

Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol III Systematicas of Pleurothallis Luer 1986;

Icones Plantarum Tropicarum Plate 284 Dodson & Vasquez 1989 drawing ok;

Orchids of Bolivia Vasquez & Ibisch Vol 1 2000 drawing fide;

Lindleyana Vol 16 No 4:246 Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001 as Acianthera sicariopsis;

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 drawing fide as Acianthera sicariopsis;

Anales Jard. Bot. Madrid 75(1)e069: 13 2018 A taxonomic synopsis of Acianthera (Orchidaceae: Pleurothallidinae) in Peru, including two new species Damian, Chiron and Mitidieri 2018 as Acianthera sicariopsis as excluded species;

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