Pleurothallis inflata Rolfe 1894 SUBGENUS Pleurothallis SECTION Pleurothallis SUBSECTION Macrophyllae-Racemosae [Lindl] Luer 1986
Photo by Rodrigo Escobar
Photo by Jean Marie Vanderwinden
and 
Common Name The Inflated Pleurothallis [Refers to the puffed Flowers]
Flower Size 1.2" [3 cm]
Found in Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador at elevations of 2200 to 2800 metersas a small to medium sized, cold growing, caespitose epiphyte or terrestrial with erect, slender ramicauls subtended by 2 to 3 tubular sheaths and another near the middle carrying a single, apical, coriaceous, narrowly elliptical-obovate, acute, slightly acuminate leaf that is narrowly cuneate below into the subpetiolate base and blooms in the winter, spring and fall on 1 or 2, single occasionally successively single, pendant flowered inflorescence arising from a spathe at the apex of the ramicaul holding the non-resupinate flowers below the leaf.
"Characterized by a slender ramicaul carrying a single, narrowly obovate, acuminate leaf and a single, purple spotted flower that sometimes is followed by a second, The uppermost synsepal is deeply cucullate, the peatls are broad below the middle and acuminate above. The lip is ransversely and obscurely 3-lobed." LUer 1999
Synonyms Pleurothallis lindenii var. pumila Rchb.f 1855
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Die Orchideen Schlechter 1915; Beitrage Zur Orchideenkunde Von Colombia 27:48 Schlechter 1924; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965; Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated Vol 6 Dunsterville & Garay 1976 drawing ok; Orchids of Venezuela, An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 3 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 drawing ok; Systematics of Pleurothallis Vol 3 Luer 1986; Orchids Travel By Air A Pictoral Safari Mulder, Mulder-Roelfsema and Schuiteman 1990 photo fide; Native Colombian Orchids Vol 6 COS 1998 photo fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XVIII Systematics of Pleurothallis subsection Antenniferae, Longiracemosae, Macrophyllae-Racemosae and Subgenera Pseudsostelis and Acuminata Luer 1999 drawing fide; Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 3 Ramiro and Carnevali 2000 drawing ok; Orquideas Nativas del Tachira Cesar Fernandez 2003 photo fide;
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