Pleurothallis velaticaulis Rchb.f. 1850 SUBGENUS Crocodeilanthe [Rchb.f & Warsc.]Luer 1986
Original Photo by © S Manning and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website
Photo by Gary Yong Gee
Photo by Mulder and Mulder-Roelfsema
EARLY
Common Name The Covered Stem Pleurothallis [refers to the imbricating sheaths on the ramicaul]
Flower Size .08" [2 mm]
Found in Trinidad and Tobago, Costa Rica, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Peru in cloud forests at elevations of 1100 to 3100 meters as a densely caespitose, small to medium sized, cool to cold growing epiphyte with fasiculate, slender, erect ramiucauls with a closely adpressed sheath near the middle and 2 to 3, imbricating sheaths at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, acute to subacute to narrowly rounded, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the spring, summer and early fall on 1 to 4, simulataneous, more or less secund, 4 to 13.2" [10 to 33 cm] long, densely and simultaneously many flowered inflorescence arising through an annulus with a slender spathe placed below the abscission layer.
P velaticaulis Rchb.f. is similar to P dueterovasquzii but it differs by the smaller flowers with proportionately wider floral parts and single-veined petals.
Synonyms Crocodeilanthe velaticaulis (Rchb.f.) Luer 2004; Humboldtia crassipes (Lindl.) Kuntze 1891; Humboldtia velaticaulis (Rchb.f.) Kuntze 1891; Humboldtia velatipes (Rchb.f.) Kuntze 1891; Pleurothallis crassipes Lindl. 1859; Pleurothallis pichinchae Rchb.f. 1876; Pleurothallis trilineata Lindl. 1859; Pleurothallis velatipes Rchb.f. 1850; Stelis velaticaulis (Rchb.f.) Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Bonplandia Rchb.f 1854; Flora of Jamaica Fawcett & Rendle 1910 drawing ok; The Orchids of Panama L.O. Williams & P Allen 1946; Orchids of Peru Vol 2 Schweinfirth 1959; Native Orchids of Trinidad Schultes 1960; Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated Vol 2 Dunsterville & Garay 1961 drawing ok; AOS Bulletin Vol 36 #9 1967; AOS Bulletin Vol 38 No 6 1969; Flora de Venezuela Volumen 15 Parte 2 Foldats 1970 drawing ok; Orchids of Venezuela, An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 3 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 drawing ok; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol 3 Luer 1986; Catologo Descriptivo de Las Orquideas Cubanas Acuna 1987; Orchids Travel By Air A Pictoral Safari Mulder, Mulder-Roelfsema and Schuiteman 1990 as P crassapex photo fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol 16 Luer 1998 drawing fide; Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 3 Ramiro and Carnevali 2000 drawing ok; Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana Vol 7 Steyermark, Berry, Yatskievych and Holst 2003; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVI Luer 2004 as Crocodeilanthe velaticaulis; Harvard Papers in Botany, Vol. 17, No. 2, pp. 333 to 368 2012 MISCELLANEOUS NEW SPECIES IN THE PLEUROTHALLIDINAE (ORCHIDACEAE) Carlyle A. Luer and Lisa Thoerle as Crocodeilanthe velaticaulis
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