Pteroglossaspis distans Summerh. 1958

TYPE Drawing by © Summerhayes

Common Name The Distant Pterolossaspis [refers to its being separated from others in the genus by the non-resupinate flowers]

Flower Size

Found in Sierra Leone in lowland grasslands in poor sandy soils as a large sized, hot growing terrestrial with a irregulate palmate to pinnately lobed, horizontally flattened tuber giving rise to a single to 2, linear-lanceolate, acute, thin textured, long petiolate, canaliculate base leaves that blooms in the fall on an erect, to 34" [85 cm] long, peduncle terete, completly envelopoed by sheaths, rachis 2.8 to 3.6" [7 tio 9 cm] long, terete, subdensely many flowered inflorescence with lanceolate-linear, acute, longer than the flowers floral bracts.

"This remarkable species seems best placed in the genus Pteroglossaspis though in some respects it differs from the other members of the genus hence the specific epithet. In general habit, tubers, leaf arrangement and shape, and the characters of the inflorescence, particularly the sheaths enveloping the whole peduncle and the long bracts, it agrees well with others in the genus. The flowers however are not resupinate, the labellum occupying an adaxial position. The column is without a without a foot but us longer and more slender than usual. At the base it is furnished on each side with a rounded auricle. The label- lum, as in other species of the genus, is without a spur, is trilobed in the lower part, rather fleshy and darker in color than the perianth. The large middle lobe is almost completely covered with a series of parellel verrucose crests lying close to one another. Such verrucose thickenings, though to a less extent, are found on the labellum of others in the genus." Summerhayes 1958

Synonyms Orthochilus distans (Summerh.) Bytebier 2014

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

* Kew Bull. 13: 82 Summerhayes 1958

Rudolf Schlechter Die Orchideen Band 1B lieferung 24 1457 - 1520 Brieger 1991 drawing fide

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------