Trichosalpinx tenuiflora (Schltr.) Luer 1983 SUBGENUS Xenia Luer 1997

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

LATE EARLY

Common Name The Thin Flowered Trichosalpinx [refers to the texture of the sepals and petals]

Flower Size .16" [4 mm]

Found in Santa Cruz department of Bolivia in cloud forests at elevations around 2000 to 2200 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cold growing epiphyte with erect, slender ramicauls enveloped by 4 to 6, ciliate, lepanthiform sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, thickly coriaceous, narrowly elliptical, acute, cuneate below into the subpetiolate base leaf that blooms in the late summer and early fall on a loose, lightly flexuous, filiform, 2.4" [6 cm] long including the 1.2" [3 cm] long peduncle, successively several flowered inflorescence arising from the apex of the ramicaul.

"Distinguished from all others in the SUBGENUS by the obtuse, membraneous sepals and petals and unusual, subquadrate, fleshy lip with cellular-glandular surfaces. The sides are very thick and erect, creating a deep channel. Below the middle the margins are thin narrow and erose." Luer 1997

Synonyms *Pleurothallis tenuiflora Schltr. 1913; Tubella tenuiflora (Schltr.) Archila 2000

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

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