Pleurothallis velaticaulis Rchb.f. 1850 SUBGENUS Crocodeilanthe [Rchb.f & Warsc.]Luer 1986>
Photo by © M Rincon
Original Photo by © S Manning and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website
Photo by Gary Yong Gee
Photo by Mulder and Mulder-Roelfsema
Drawing by © Carl Luer and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website
EARLY
Common Name The Covered Stem Pleurothallis [refers to the imbricating sheaths on the ramicaul]
Flower Size .08" [2 mm]
Found in Trinidad and Tobago, Costa Rica, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Peru in cloud forests at elevations of 1100 to 3100 meters as a small to medium sized, cool to cold growing, densely caespitose epiphyte with fasiculate, slender, erect ramiucauls with a closely adpressed sheath near the middle and 2 to 3, imbricating sheaths at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, acute to subacute to narrowly rounded, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the spring, summer and early fall on 1 to 4, simulataneous, more or less secund, arising through an annulus with a slender spathe placed below the abscission layer, 4 to 13.2" [10 to 33 cm] long, densely and simultaneously many flowered inflorescence shorter to longer than teh ovary floral bract.
P velaticaulis Rchb.f. is similar to P dueterovasquzii but it differs by the smaller flowers with proportionately wider floral parts and single-veined petals.
Synonyms Crocodeilanthe velaticaulis (Rchb.f.) Luer 2004; Humboldtia crassipes (Lindl.) Kuntze 1891; Humboldtia velaticaulis (Rchb.f.) Kuntze 1891; Humboldtia velatipes (Rchb.f.) Kuntze 1891; Pleurothallis crassipes Lindl. 1859; Pleurothallis pichinchae Rchb.f. 1876; Pleurothallis trilineata Lindl. 1859; Pleurothallis velatipes Rchb.f. 1850; Stelis velaticaulis (Rchb.f.) Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
*Linnaea 22: 824 Rchb.f 1850;
Bonplandia Rchb.f 1854;
Flora of Jamaica Fawcett & Rendle 1910
Flora of Jamaica Fawcett & Rendle 1910 drawing ok;
The Orchids of Panama L.O. Williams & P Allen 1946;
Orchids of Peru Vol 2 Schweinfurth 1959;
Native Orchids of Trinidad Schultes 1960;
Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated Vol 2 Dunsterville & Garay 1961 drawing ok;
AOS Bulletin Vol 38 No 6 1969;
Flora de Venezuela Volumen 15 Parte 2 Foldats 1970 drawing ok;
Orchids of Venezuela, An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 3 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 drawing ok;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol III Systematics of Pleurothallis Luer 1986
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol III Systematics of Pleurothallis Luer 1986 as P pichinchae;
Catologo Descriptivo de Las Orquideas Cubanas Acuna 1987;
Orchids Travel By Air A Pictoral Safari Mulder, Mulder-Roelfsema and Schuiteman 1990 as P crassapex photo fide;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XVI Systematics of Pleurothallis SUBGEN Crocodeilanthe, Rhynchopera and Talpinaria Luer 1998 drawing fide;
Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 3 Ramiro and Carnevali 2000 drawing ok;
Lindleyana Vol 16 No 4: 267 Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001 as Stelis velaticaulis;
Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana Vol 7 Steyermark, Berry, Yatskievych and Holst 2003;
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 Crocodeilanthe velaticaulis;
Harvard Papers in Botany, Vol. 17, No. 2, pp. 333 to 368 MISCELLANEOUS NEW SPECIES IN THE PLEUROTHALLIDINAE (ORCHIDACEAE) Carlyle A. Luer and Lisa Thoerle 2012 as Crocodeilanthe velaticaulis;
LANKESTERIANA 23(2). Karremans, Moreno, Gil-Amaya, Morales, Espinosa, Mesa, Restrepo, Rincon-Gonzales, Serna, Sierra-Ariza and Vieira-Uribe 2023 as Stelis velaticaulis photo fide;
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