Pleurothallis xiphizusa (Rchb.f. & Warsz.) Rchb.f. 1861 SUBGENUS Crocodeilanthe [Rchb.f & Warsc.]Luer 1986
Drawing by © Carl Luer and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website
and AGAIN
Common Name The Xiphizusa-Like Pleurothallis [refers to the similarity to the genus Xiphizusa]
Flower Size .4" [1 cm]
Found in Carcih province of Ecuador and Piura department of Peru in cloud forests at elevations of 1600 to 3200 meters as a small sized, cool to cold growing terrestrial with fasciculate, stout, erect ramicauls enveloped by a loose, tubular sheath near the middle and 2 to 3 loose, imbricating, tubular sheaths at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, thinly coriaceous, elliptical, acute to subacute, cuneate below into the subpetiolate base leaf that blooms in the winter and again in the summer on a secund, arising through a spathe from an annulus below the abscission layer, 6 to 9.2" [15 to 23 cm] long including the 3.2 to 4" [8 to 10 cm] long peduncle, densely and simultaneously many flowered inflorescence with an inflated, cucullate, obtuse, longer than the ovary floral bract.
"Characterized by the robust stature with inflated sheaths about the fasciled ramicauls. The stout, secund racemes of elongated flowers emerge from a large spathe at the base of the subpetiolate leaf. The base of each flower is contained within a large, inflated bract. The sepals, the longest of the subgenus, are multiveined. The petals and the lip are broadly obovate with rounded apices. The lip possesses only the transverse callus above the concavity of the lip." Luer 1998
Synonyms Crocodeilanthe xiphizusa Rchb.f. & Warsz. 1854; Pleurothallis crocodeilanthe Lindl. 1859; Stelis xiphizusa (Rchb.f. & Warsz.) Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Bonplandia (Hannover) 2: 114 Rchb.f 1854 as Crocodeilanthe xiphzusa;
Fol. Orchid. 8: 4 Lindley 1859 nom. illeg.;
Ann. Bot. Syst. 6: 172 Rchb.f 1861;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol III Systematics of Pleurothallis Luer 1986;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XVI Systematics of Pleurothallis SUBGEN Crocodeilanthe, Rhynchopera and Talpinaria Luer 1998 drawing fide;
Lindleyana Vol 16 No 4:268 Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001 as Stelis xiphizusa;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVIII Pleurothallis subgenus Acianthera and Three Allied subgenera, A Second Century of new Species of Stelis of Ecuador, Epibator, Ophidion and Zootrophion Luer 2004 as Crocodielanthe xiphizusa;
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