Pleurothallis gratiosa Rchb. f. 1854 SUBGENUS Ancipitia SECTION Ancipitia Luer 1986
Photo by © Pieter C. Brouwer and his Nature Photo Website
Photo by Eric Hunt, plant grown by Dan Newman of Hanging Gardens.
Photo by Walter Teague
Common Name The Attractive Pleurothallis [refers to the flowers being "full of Pleasure"]
Flower Size 3/8" [1 cm]
Found in Venezuela as a miniature sized, cool growing epiphyte at elevations around 1500 to 1635 meters with erect ramicauls enveloped basally by 2, loose, tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical, elliptical leaf that blooms on a thin, 2" [5 cm] long, single flowered inflorescence with the flower held above the leaf. It has slender, erect, ramicauls that are sharply ancipitous towards the middle, a bract below the middle and 2 to 3 basal sheaths carrying a single, apical, rigid, coriaceous, erect, elliptical, obtuse, cordate, sessile leaf with a rounded base that blooms at most any time of the year on a fascile of solitary successive flowers arising from a reclining spathe at the base of the leaf. The peduncle is filiform and can be ascending or suberect, with a tubular floral bract.
Synonyms Ancipitia gratiosa (Rchb.f.) Luer 2004; Humboldtia gratiosa (Rchb.f.) Kuntze 1891
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; *Bonplandia Rchb.f 1854; Xenia Orchidaceae Rchb.f 1854 drawing; Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated Vol 1 Dunsterville & Garay 1959 drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 30 No 5 1961; AOS Bulletin Vol 36 #9 1967; Flora de Venezuela Foldats Volumen XV Part 2 1970 drawing fide; Orchids of Venezuela, An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 3 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Systematics of Pleurothallis Vol 3 Luer 1986; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol VI Systematics of Pleurothallis subgen Ancipita, Scopula and Trisetella Luer 1989 drawing fide; Orchids Travel By Air A Pictoral Safari Mulder, Mulder-Roelfsema and Schuiteman 1990 photo fide; Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 3 Ramiro and Carnevali 2000 drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVI Luer 2004 as Ancipitia gratiosa
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