Pleurothallis varellae [Toscano, Luer & Jacques Klein] in ed. SUBGENUS Effusae Luer 2000
TYPE Drawing of Pabstiella varellae by Luer
LATE 
EARLY 
Common Name Varella's Pleurothallis [Luis Felipe Varella Brazilian Orchid Enthusiast current]
Flower Size .2" [5 mm]
Found in Rio Rio Grande do Sul state of Brazil in Auracaria moist forestsat elevations around 860 to 900 meters as a mini-miniature sized, warm growing epiphyte with slender ramicauls enveloped by 2 to 3 closely appressed, minutely pubescent, tubular sheaths with margins of microscopically scabrous, thickened ostia and carrying a single, apical, green, spotted with purple beneath, erect, thickly coriaceous, variable in shape, broadly to narrowly elliptical, sometimes suborbicular, acute to obtuse, minutely tridentate at apex, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the late winter, spring and summer on an a pendent, from near the apex of the ramicaul, peduncle .8 to 1.4" [2 to 3.5 cm] long, rachis 1" [2.5 cm] long, loose, subflexuous, .8 to 2.4" [2 to 6 cm] long, simultaneously 2 to 4 flowered inflorescence with shorter than the pedicel floral bract.
"This species was first described as Pleurothallis mouraeoides var. riograndensis Pabst. An isoparatype exists at AMES and was examined by the authors. An illustration was made from a rehydrated flower, but the plant was too fragmented to make an adequate drawing. Pabstiella varellae Toscano, Luer & J.Klein is indeed very similar to P. mouraeoides, here considered a synonym of P. campestris, but it is distinguished by its usually pendent habit, flower size, and lip morphology. The inflorescence of Pabstiella varellae is pendent, flowers are relatively larger, sometimes as large as the leaves, dorsal sepal is .2 to .344" [5 to 8.6 mm] long, petals .12 to .28" [3 to 5.2 mm] long, and the lip very shortly attenuate with the side lobes below the middle. Plants of Pabstiella campestris are erect, the inflorescence may be slightly curved or arcuate, but not pendent, flowers are distinctively smaller than the leaves, dorsal sepal does not exceed .18" [4.5 mm] in length, petals are not longer than .12" [3 mm], and the lip is cuneate with side lobes more or less in the middle." Luer, Toscano & Klein 2013
Synonyms *Pabstiella varellae Toscano, Luer & Jacques Klein 2013; Pleurothallis mouraeoides var. riograndensis Pabst 1956
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
Arch. Jard. Bot. Rio de Janeiro 14: 16 Pabst 1956 as Pleurothallis mouraeoides var. riograndensis;
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