Pleurothallis cremasta Luer & J.Portilla 2001 SUBGENUS Acianthera SECTION Brachystachyae Lindley 1859
Photo by © Alexander Hirtz
Photo by Ecuagenera and their Ecuador Orchid Website
TYPE Drawing TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer and Selbyana Vol 22 #2 pg 120 Webpage
Common Name or Meaning The Hanging Pleurothallis [refers to the plant habit]
Flower Size .2" [5 mm]
Found in Morona-Santiago province of Ecuador at elevations around 800 meters as a small sized, warm growing epiphyte with pendant ramicauls enveloped basally by 2 to 3, inflated, imbricating, acuminate sheaths and carrying a single, apical, pendant, elliptical, acute, rounded below into the sessile base leaf that blooms in the spring on a pendant, 1.6" [4 cm] long, few to 7, simultaneously flowered inflorescence arising through an annulus.
"This species, known only from the original collection, is apparently rare and endemic in southeastern Ecuador. It is characterized by the pendent habit with the ramicaul, clad with a loose sheath that is shorter than the narrowly ovate leaf. The raceme is congested and simultaneously flowered, about half the length of the leaf. The sepals are fleshy carinate, narrow and acute; the petals are minutely denticulate; and the lip is three-lobed with the lobes erect, below the middle and rounded. The base of the lip is concave above a transverse callus." Luer 2001
Synonyms Acianthera cremasta (Luer & J.Portilla) Luer 2004
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * SELBYANA Volume 22(2) 119 2001 drawing fide; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 4 Dodson 2003 photo good; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVI Luer 2004 drawing ok; Icones Pleurothallidianrum Vol XXVI Luer 2004 as Acianthera cremastra; Pleurothallids Neotropical Jewels Vol 1 Karremans & Viera 2020 as Acianthera cremastra photo fide
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