Pleurothallis simplicilabia C.Schweinf. 1943 SUBGENUS Crocodeilanthe [Rchb.f & Warsc.]Luer 1986
Drawing by © Carl Luer and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website
LATE 
EARLY
Common Name The Simple Lip Pleurothallis [Refers to the lip]
Flower Size .1" [2.5 mm]
Found in Peru at elevations around 2200 meters as a small sized, cold growing, probably caespitose epiphyte with slender, erect ramicauls enveloped by a tubular sheath near the middle and 2 to 3, trubular, imbricating others at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical-ovate, obtuse, broadly cuneate below into theshortly petiolate base leaf that blooms in the late winter and early spring on numerous [13+-], simultaneous, arising through a spathe from an nannulus just below the abscission layer, erect, more or less secund, 6 to 10" [15 to 25 cm] long, including the 1.2" [3 cm] long, peduncle, simultaneously many flowered inflorescence with as long as the pedicel floral bract.
"Numerous slender, simutaneously many flowered racemes far exceeding the leaf are produced from a relatively small spathe. The small flowers are not unusual in the subgenus except for the oblong lip. The terete column, nearly as long as the lip, lies in the center of the lip and is grasped above its middle by a pair of lunate calli. These calli are unique modifications of the pair commonly seen in this subgenera." Luer 1998
Synonyms Crocodeilanthe simplicilabia (C.Schweinf.) Luer 2004; Stelis simplicilabia (C.Schweinf.) Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
*Revista Acad. Colomb. Ci. Exact. 5: 350 Schweinfurth 1943;
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 simplcilabia;
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 simplicilabia
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