Pleurothallis xerophila Schltr. 1918 SUBGENUS Specklinia SECTION Effusae Lindl. 1842

Drawing by © R Jimenez & Soto

LATE THROUGH EARLIER

Common Name The Broad Winged Dragon Pleurothallis [refers to the gaping flowers on the sheild-like leaf]

Flower Size .4" [1 cm]

Found in Mexico in cloud forests at elevations of 2200 to 2300 meters as a small to medium sized, cold growing, caespitose epiphyte with erect, terete at the base and gradually becoming sharply winged towards the apex ramicauls enveloped evanescent basal sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, thinly coriaceous, elliptical-ovate, acute, acuminate, cuneate below into the decurrent base leaf that blooms in the late summer through earlier winter on a crowded, 1 to 1.8" [2.5 to 4.5 cm] long peduncles, successively single flowered inflorescence arising through a usually deciduous spathe at the apex of the secondary stem imbedded well above the base of the leaf and has an infundibular floral bract.

Synonyms Specklinia xerophila (Schltr.) Luer 2004; Stelis xerophila (Schltr.) Soto Arenas 2002 publ. 2003

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

*Beih. Bot. Centralbl. 36(2): 398 Schlechter 1918;

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 Specklinia xerophila;

Icones Orchidacearum 5-6 Plate 695 Soto & Hagsater 2002 as Stelis xerophila drawing fide

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