Platystele caudatisepala [C Schweinfurth] Garay 1974
Photo by Jean Marc and his Flickriver Photo Orchid Site
Photo by Jorge Chinchilla and his Panoramio Photo Orchid Site
LATER
EARLY
Common Name The Long Tailed Sepal Platystele
Flower Size .3" [7.5 mm]
Found in Chiapas Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Panama and Ecuador in extremely wet montane cloud forests at elevations around 400 to 1100 meters as a mini-miniature sized, hot growing epiphyte with slender ramicauls enveloped by 2 to 3, thin, ribbed, imbricating sheaths and carrying a single apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptic, subacute, gradually narrowing below into the cuneate, subpetiolate base leaf that blooms in the later summer through early winter on a successively single [6] flowered inflorescence arising from low on the ramicaul
An interesting note is that the dorsal sepal continues to elongate during its floracion and can get to almost 1/2" [1.25 cm] long.
Synonyms *Pleurothallis caudatisepala Schweinf. 1937
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list ,IPNI ; Icones Orchidacearum 5-6 plate 636 Hagsater & Soto Drawing fide drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidianrum Vol VII Systematics of Platystele Luer 1990 drawing fide;
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