Pleurothallis whitteniana M Wilson & B T Larsen 2022 SUBGENUS Pleurothallis SECTION Macrophyllae-Fasciculatae Lindl 1859
LCDP photo by © Mark Wilson/TYPE Drawing By Bruno Larsen and Harvard Papers in Botany Vol. 27, No. 2 New species of Pleurothallis (Orchidaceae: Pleurothallidinae), a new country record, AND labellar morphology in the P. cardiostola-P. lilijae complex of subsection Macrophyllae-Fasciculatae Mark Wilson, Bruno Larsen, Juan Sebastián Moreno, Raven Ward, Joost A. G. Riksen,Luis Piña, Mario A. Sierra-Ariza, Marco M. Jiménez, Milton Rincón-Gonzalez, Robinson Galindo-Tarazona, Henry Garzón Suárez, and David Haelterman 2022
Common Name Whitten's Pleurothallis [American Professor and Orchid pollination expert 1954 - 2019]
Flower Size .4" [1 cm]
Found in southeastern Ecuador without locational data and Amazonas department of Peru at elevations around 1750 meters as a miniature to small sized, cool growing, caespitose epiphyte with erect, slender, terete ramicauls enclosed basally by 3, papery, dark brown sheaths and carrying a single, apical, subpendent, thinly coriaceous, lanceolate, acute, cordate, sessile base leaf that blooms in the winter on a horizontal, arising from an erect spathaceous bract, rarely in pairs, peduncle 2 mm long, almost completely enveloped by the spathe, a fascicle of solitary, successively single, few flowered inflorescence carrying non-resupinate flowers.
"Part of the Pleurothallis cardiostola/Pleurothallis lilijae complex. Pleurothallis whitteniana is most similar in floral and particularly labellar morphology to P. diazii but it is easily distinguished from this species by the plant size (6" [15 cm] tall in P. whitteniana versus 12" [30 cm] tall in P. diazii); leaf shape (lanceolate in P. whitteniana versus ovate in P. diazii); and the flower orientation (non-resupinate in P. whitteniana versus resupinate in P. diazii). While both are relatively small plants, P. whitteniana is easily distinguished from P. culpameae by the leaf shape (lanceolate in P. whitteniana versus ovate in P. culpameae); spathaceous bract from which the inflorescence emerges (erect in P. whitteniana versus reclining in P. culpameae); the orientation of the flower (non-resupinate in P. whitteniana versus resupinate in P. culpameae); and the position of the lip (projecting from synsepal at ca. 90 degrees in P. whitteniana versus flat against the synsepal in P. culpameae)." Mark Wilson & B.T. Larsen 2022
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
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