Trichosalpinx quitensis (Rchb.f.) Luer 1983 SUBGENUS Tubella Luer 1986

Drawing by © Carl Luer and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website

Common Name The Quito Trichosalpinx

Flower Size .2" [5 mm]

Found in southern Venezuela and eastern Ecuador at elevations around 1000 to 2500 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cool to cold growing epiphyte with erect, more or less stout ramicauls enveloped by 5 to 9, minutely ciliate, lepanthiform sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, thickly coricaeous, elliptical to narrowly elliptical, subacute to obtuse, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the summer and winter on a congested, filiform, 2.4 to 10" [6 to 25 cm] long including the .2 to .29" [5 to 7 mm] long peduncle, simultaneously few flowered inflorescence arising from near the apex of the ramicaul within the uppermost cauline sheath and has infundibular floral bracts.

"In habit T quietensis resembles species of SUBGENUS Trichosalpinx because of the relatively stout, non-prolific ramicauls and the short, congested inflorescence. The flowers however suggest SUBGENUS Tubella Luer 1986. They are disinguished by the small fleshy sepals, obtuse petals and a thick lip with small erect, uncinate processes on the calli above the base." Luer 1997

Synonyms Humboltia quitensis (Rchb.f.) Kuntze 1891; Pleurothallis brevispicata C.Schweinf. 1942; *Pleurothallis quitensis Rchb.f. 1855; Trichosalpinx brevispicata (C.Schweinf.) Luer 1983; Tubella quitensis (Rchb.f.) Archila 2000

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XV Systematics of Trichosalpinx Luer 1997 drawing fide;

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