Pleurothallis subreniformis Schltr.1921 SUBGENUS Pleurothallis SECTION Pleurothallis SUBSECTION Macrophyllae-Racemosae [Lindl] Luer 1986
Photos by Mark Wilson & Andreas Kaye
Drawing by © Carl Luer and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website
Drawings by © C A Luer
Common Name The Almost Kidney Shaped Pleurothallis [refers to the lip]
Flower Size .4" [1 cm]
Found in Pichincha, Carchi and Imbabura provinces of northwestern Ecuador in cloud forests at elevations around 2500 to 3000 meters as a medium to giant sized, cold growing, caespitose epiphyte with stout, erect ramicauls enveloped by a tubular sheath below the middle and 2 to 3 others at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, broadly elliptical, obtuse, shortly acuminate, cuneate and contracted below into the stout petiolate base leaf that blooms in the spring on 1 to 4, arising through a spathe at the base of the petiole, arching to pendent, 2 to 3.2" [5 to 8 cm] long including the .8" [2 cm] long, laxly few flowered inflorescence with an infundibular, shorter to longer than the pedicel floral bract.
" Pleurothallis caucensis differs from P. subreniformis in the length of the raceme, sepals and petals, which are longer in P. caucensis than in P. subreniformis; and in the lip shape, which is suborbicular in P. caucensis and hippocrepiform with an acute apex on the midlobe in P. subreniformis. Pleurothallis caucensis can be distinguished from P. bicornis by the petals, which in P. caucensis are free, projected laterally and downward and in P. bicornis are adpressed and project forwards; by the lip which is completely fimbriated in P. caucensis and only fimbriated on the margin of the central lobe in P. bicornis; and by the lateral lobes of the lip which are flattened and surpass the column in P. caucensis and which are auriculate, not surpassing the column in P. bicornis. Pleurothallis caucensis differs from P. torrana in the length of the ramicauls, raceme, sepals and petals, all of which are longer in P. caucensis than in P. torrana in the lip shape which is suborbicular in P. caucensis and rhombiform in P. torrana; and in the lip callus, which consists of a pair of lunate calli in P. caucensis and a single transverse callus in P. torrana." Wilson etal 2017
Synonyms Pleurothallis lindenii var. gigantea Rchb.f. 1855
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol III Systematics of Pleurothallis Luer 1986;
LANKESTERIANA 17(2) Wilson 2017 drawing/photo fide
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