Ponthieva brittoniae Ames 1910
Photo by © Chuck McCartney
Photo by © Carl Luer
Drawing by © Lopez, Rosa and Soto
Common Name Britton's Ponthieva [Female Bahamian Botanist 1900's]
Flower Size .2" [5 mm]
Found in Campeche and Quintana Roo states of Mexico, Florida USA, the Bahamas, Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic among porous limestone rocks lightly strewn with pine needles as a medium sized, cool growing terrestrial with a basal rosette of 3 to 5, fugacious, oblong-lanceolate to oblanceolate, light green, acute, narrowing bwelow into the sulcate, petiolate base leaves that blooms in the winter on an erect, terminal, peduncle 10.4 to 14.8" [26 to 37 cm] long, thin, terete, brown below green above, provided with oblong, acuminate, acute sheathing bracts, rachis 8 to 14 cm] long, [20 to 35 cm] long, pubescent, to 20 flowered inflorescence with green, lanceolate, floral bracts and carrying non-resupinate flowers.
Very similar to P racemosa but differs in the open pineland habit in full sun, the smaller, less robust, smaller leaved plant and the flowers that are held at less than a 45 degree angle from the stem on short green ovaries instead of the longer brown ovaries of P racemosa. The flowers differ from P racemosa in having smaller parts overall except the column which is approximately the same size, and the conspicuous veining on the sepals and lip are absent in this species.
Synonyms Ponthieva ekmanii Mansf. 1929; Ponthieva poitaei Rchb.f. ex Nir 2000; Ponthieva racemosa var. brittoniae (Ames) Luer 1972
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
Ark. Bot. 22A(17): 10 Mansfield 1929 as Ponthieva ekmanii
Drawing of Florida Orchids Ames 1959;
The Native Orchids of Florida: 82 Luer 1972 as P racemosa var brittoniae drawing fide;
AOS Bulletin Vol 54 # 3: 273 1985 photo fide;
Orchid. Antill.: 312 Nir 2000 as Ponthieva poitaei
AOS Bulletin Vol 74 No 5:380-381 2005 photo fide;
Icones Orchidacearum 10 Plate 1062 Soto 2008 drawing fide;
Orchid Genera and Species in Guatemala Archila, Szlachchetko, Chiron, Lipinska, Mystkowska and Bertolini 2018
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