Pterichis pauciflora Schltr. 1921 SECTION Acraea
Habitat in situ Parque Nacional Purace Cauca Colombia Photos by Jay Pfahl © Collection sheet by © Jany Renz and the The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website Common Name The Few Flowered Pterichis
Flower Size .4" [1 cm]
Found in Colombia and Ecuador in cloud forests at elevations of 3000 to 3700 meters as a small to medium sized, cold growing terrestrial [epiphyte] with a rosette of 4 to 6, small linear, gradually narrowing below into the elongate, petiolate base leaves and a single, larger, basal, erect, oblong-lanceolate, glabrous, gradually narrowing below into the elongate, petiolate base leaf that blooms in the spring on an erect, subflexuous, glabrous below, minutely glandulose-puberulent above, peduncle 9.2 to 13.6" [23 to 34 cm] long, rachis .8 to 1.6" [2 to 4 cm] long, loosely 6 to 10 flowered inflorescence with 5 tubular, acute to acuminate, glabrous below becoming pilose above sheaths and with glabrous, ovate-cucullate floral bracts and carrying non-resupinate flowers.
"The basal lip part of Pterichis pauci?ora is not well-separated from the middle lobe unlike in most species of the section Acraea. From somewhat similar P. habenarioides and P. parvifolia it differs also in usually having 1-veined petals. Unlike P. habenaroidesthis species it has linear-lanceolate petals (Schlechter, 1921). In the somewhat similar P. triloba the petals are sparsely ciliate on the margin and 3-veined." Kolanowska 2021
CAUTION The Orquideologia article cited below states that this species has only been found in Cundinamarca department of Colombia but the species in the photo if correct was found in the department of Cauca within the Parque Nacional Purace on June 2007 as an epiphyte on an old tree at elevations of 2900 to 3200 meters.
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
Flora of Ecuador No 9 225[1] Garay 1978; Orquideologia Vol XVI No 3 Morales 1986 drawing fide; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 4 Dodson 2003 photo ?; Synopsis of Ecuadorian Pterichis [Orchidaceae] Kolanowska 2021 Drawing/collection sheet fide;
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