Platystele obtecta Luer 1994 Photos courtesy of Daniel Jimenez

Common Name The Covered Platystele [refers to the inflorescence which just barely arises above the basal sheaths]

Flower Size 1/10" [2mm]

Found in the Guanacaste coast of Costa Rica in primary forests at elevations around 600 meters as a miniature sized, hot growing epiphyte with erect, short, ramicauls enveloped basally by 2 to 3 loose, ribbed, tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, rounded apically, gradually narrowing below into the cuneate petiolate base leaf that blooms in the summer on a congested, simultaneously 2 to 3 flowered inflorescence arising laterally from the ramicaul and has thin floral bracts.

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos [http://mobot.mobot.org/W3T/Search/vast.html] , Kew Monocot list [ http://www.kew.org/wcsp/home.do ], IPNI [ http://www.us.ipni.org/ipni/plantsearch?request_type=search&output_format=query&ret_defaults=on Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XI Systematics of Lepanthes subgenus Brachycladium and Pleurothallis subgen Aenigma, subgen Elongata, Subgen Kraenzlinnella Luer 1994

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