Trichosalpinx trachystoma (Schltr.) Luer 1983 SUBGENUS Trichosalpinx
Photo by © Daniel Jimenez
Drawing by © Carl Luer
THROUGH
Common Name The Shaggy Opening Trichosalpinx [Refers to the lepanthiform sheaths]
Flower Size .15" [3 mm]
Found in Guatemala and Costa Rica in lowland forests at elevations of 350 to 950 meters as a mini-miniature sized, hot growing epiphyte with erect, slender ramicauls enveloped by 6 to 10 leapnthiform sheaths with dilated, ciliate ostia and carrying a single, alical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, obtuse, contracted below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the fall through spring on a congested, distichous, filiform, .4 to .5" [1 to 1.2 cm] long, simultaneously 2 to 4 flowered, racemose inflorescence arising on the back side of the leaf, from near the apex of the ramicaul.
"Similar to T blaisdelli but differs in the smaller, subglobose flowers borne in a short raceme near the base of the leaf. The sepals are essentially glabrous, the laterals forming a deeply concave, cymbiform synsepal. The dorsal sepal is broadly obovate. The minute petals are erose at the truncate apex. Most distinct is the flat, spathulate, glabrous lip." Luer 1997
CAUTION Luer's drawing shows no hairs on the sepals margins and Daniel's elevations [2000 meters] is way above what is mentioned by Luer.
Synonyms *Pleurothallis trachystoma Schltr. 1923
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XV Systematics of Trichosalpinx Luer 1997 drawing fide; Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica Vol 3 Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003; Orchid Genera and Species in Guatemala Archila, Szlachchetko, Chiron, Lipinska, Mystkowska and Bertolini 2018
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