Pleurothallis viridi-flava [Karremans & Bogarin] in ed SUBGENUS Dracontia SECTION Dracontia Luer 1986
TYPE Drawing by © Diego Bogarin/Comparison Photo by © Adam Karremans and Systematic Botany, 38(2): pp. 307–315 Three New Species of Dracontia (Pleurothallidinae, Orchidaceae) from Costa Rica Adam P. Karremans and Diego Bogar?n 2013
Common Name The Green and Yellow Pleurothallis
Flower Size .4" [1 cm]
Found in Puntarenas province of Costa Rica in wet montane forests of the Pacific watershed of the Cordillera de Talamanca at elevations of 1600 to 1850 meters as a just small sized, cool growing, caespitose epiphyte with terete ramicals enveloped almost compltetly by a thin, tubular sheath with 2 much shorter ones at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptic, sessile, obtuse, apex emarginate and apiculate, gradually narrowing below into the base leaf that blooms in the spring summer and fall on an erect, arising through a long triangular spathe, peduncle 8" [20 cm] long, rachis 4" [10 cm] long, successively 3 to 4, to 9 flowered inflorescence with short, acute, much shorter than the pedicel floral bracts.
"Pleurothallis viridi-flava is unique within the genus for having almost completely yellowish-green flowers, only the apex of the column being purplish. It is important to mention that yellow or “flava” forms are common in purpleflowered Pleurothallidinae and have been found for P grandis and P tuerckheimii. It is therefore possible that a purple form exists as well; however we have not yet seen it. The species belongs to a group of closely related species that have elliptical, obtuse, subpetiolate leaves, an inconspicuous spathe, and an elongated, loose raceme of long-pedicellate, medium-sized flowers. P conochila is closely related; however the new species can be recognized by its larger flowers (dorsal sepal .56 TO .6" [14 to 15 mm] long and .24" [6 mm] wide vs. .32" [8 mm] long and .15" [3.75 mm] wide; lip .28 to .32" [7 to 8 mm] vs. .18" [4.5 mm] long), the sepals hirsute at the apex (vs. glabrous), the elliptic (vs. cone-shaped) and very prominently verrucose (vs. somewhat verrucose) lip, with the basal lobes being less than one fifth of the lip length (vs. one third). The type specimen of Dracontia conochila was collected at around 700 meters in elevation in the Caribbean watershed of the Talamanca cordillera, but D. viridi-flava is from around 1,800 meters in the Pacific watershed of that cordillera. P thymochila has a similar habit; however, it has red-purple flowers, glabrous sepals with incurved margins and a broad elliptic, concave lip. P neopileata [Karremans & Bogarin] in ed. is similar but has red-purple flowers, the dorsal sepal is ascending in the first third but flattens out below the middle in natural position, “hat-like”, and the lip is rugose-verrucose, not erose. P hydra is also similar but has purple flowers as well, longer acuminate sepals, and the lip is twisted straight downwards (instead of being sigmoid)."Karremans & Bogarin 2013
Synonyms *Dracontia viridiflava Karremans & Bogarín 2013; Stelis viridiflava (Karremans & Bogarín) Karremans & Bogarín 2015
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Systematic Botany, 38(2): pp. 307–315 Three New Species of Dracontia (Pleurothallidinae, Orchidaceae) from Costa Rica Adam P. Karremans and Diego Bogar?n 2013 as Dracontia viridi-flava drawing/photo fide;
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