Ponthieva brittoniae Ames 1910
Photo by © Chuck McCartney
Photo by © Carl Luer and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website
Drawing by © Lopez, Rosa and Soto
Common Name Britton's Ponthieva [Female Bahamian Botanist 1900's]
Flower Size .2" [5 mm]
Found in Florida USA, the Bahamas and Cuba among porous limestne rocks lightly strewn with pine needles as a small sized, warm growing terrestrial with a basal rosette of 3 to 5, fugacious, elliptic, light green leaves that blooms in the winter on an erect, terminal, brown below green above, pubescent, to 12" [30 cm] long, 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 are held at less that 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 haveing 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 racemosa var. brittoniae (Ames) Luer 1972
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Drawing of Florida Orchids Ames 1959; The Native Orchids of Florida Luer 1972 as P racemosa var brittoniae drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 54 # 3 1985 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 74 No 5 2005 photo fide; Icones Orchidacearum 10 Plate 1062 Soto 2008 drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 77 No 1 2005 photo fide; Orchid Genera and Species in Guatemala Archila, Szlachchetko, Chiron, Lipinska, Mystkowska and Bertolini 2018
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