Pleurothallis variabilis Luer 1979 SUBGENUS Pleurothallis SECTION Macrophyllae-Fasciculatae Lindl 1859
Photo by Andreas Kay
TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer
Common Name The Variable Pleurothallis [refers to the flower parts]
Flower Size .6" [1.5 cm]
Found in Nariño department of southern Colombia and northern and central Ecuador in cloud forest at elevations of 2400 to 3100 meters as a medium sized, cold growing, caespitose epiphyte with slender, erect to arching ramicauls enveloped basally by 2 close, tubular sheaths and another below the middle and carrying a single, apical, coriaceous, erect to horizontal, narrowly ovate, acute, basally sessile and shallowly cordate leaf that blooms at most any time of the year on a fascile, arising through a reclining spathe, of successively single, few flowered inflorescence with a tubular, shorter than the pedicel floral bract and holding the non-resupinate flower close against the leaf base.
"Characterized by the erect, more or less horizontal, narrowly ovate leaf. The flowers can vary greatly in color and position. Most distinctive is the tall callus bearing the glenion at the base of the broad, thick lip. Related to P ripleyi but it has shorter minutely serrated petals." Carl Luer 2005
Synonyms Acronia variabilis [Luer]Luer 2005
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Selbyana 5(2): 187. Luer 1979;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum XXVII Systematics of Dryadella and Acronia Section Macrophyllae-Fasciculatae Luer 2005 as Acronia variabilis
Icones Pleurothallidinarum XXVII Systematics of Dryadella and Acronia Section Macrophyllae-Fasciculatae Luer 2005 as Acronia variabilis drawing fide
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
