Pleurothallopsis monetalis (Luer) Pridgeon & M.W. Chase 2001
Photos by Eric Hunt
TYPE Drawing of Restrepiopsis monetalis by Carl Luer
Common Name or Meaning The Coin Leafed Pleurothallopsis
Flower Size 3/8" [1 cm]
Found in Venezuela, Southern Ecuador and Peru at elevations of 1800 to 2000 meters as a miniature sized, cool growing epiphyte with slender, erect ramicauls envloped basally by 2 to 3 imbricating, ribbed, tubular sheaths carrying a single, apical, erect, thickly coriaceous, broadly ovate to suborbicular, obtuse to rounded, abruptly narrows below into the petiolate base leaf that is purple suffused and that blooms in the spring on a successively single flowered, fasiculate, 1/16" to 1/8" [3 to 7 mm] long inflorescence arising from near the apex of the ramicaul.
There is a large gap between the northern Venezuelan and southern Ecuadorian species as there are none recorded from Colombia, but other than the smaller Venezuelan flowers with minor differences they are the same species.
"The leaves of this pretty species are broadly ovate to suborbicular and generally suffused with purple. The sepals of the relatively large flower are more or less fleshy. The blade or middle lobe of the lip varies , but all are widest above the middle." Luer 1991
Synonyms Octomeria monetalis Luer 1980; Restrepiopsis monetalis (Luer) Luer 1982; Restrepiopsis pulchella Luer 1983
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Phytologia 46: 352 Luer 1980 as Octomeria monetalis;
Selbyana 7: 128 Luer 1982 as Restrepiopsis monetalis;
Orchids Travel By Air A Pictoral Safari Mulder, Mulder-Roelfsema and Schuiteman 1990 as Restrepiopsis monetalis photo;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum VIII Systematics of Lepanthospsis, Octomeria subgenus Pleurothallopsis, Restrepiella, Salpistele and Teagueia Luer 1991 as Restrepiopsis monetalis drawing fide;
Lindleyana Vol 16 No 4 2001;
Australian Orchid Review Vol 69 No 5 2004 photo;
Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 4 Dodson 2003 drawing fide;
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