!Platythelys querceticola (Lindl.) Garay 1977 Photo courtesy of Belize Botanic Gardens © and their Belize Botanic Garden Webpage

Plant and Flowers Photos courtesy of Richard Gautier and His Guadeloupe Orchid Page

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Common Name The Oak Living Platythelys - The Jug Orchid

Flower Size less than 1/4" [less than 55 mm]

Found as a miniature sized, hot to cool growing, terrestrial, rhizomatous plant in Florida, Louisiana, Mexico, Belize, Giatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Bahamas, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Leeward, Trinidad & Tobago, the Windwards, Venezuela and Peru in cloud forest in deep shade at elevations of 400 to 1650 meters with erect, green stems enveloped by with 3 to 5 spirally arranged, elliptic-ovate to lanceolate, basally clasping leaves with a distinct petiole that blooms at any time of the year on an erect, terminal, to 4" [to 10 cm] long, racemose, many, successively flowered inflorescence subtended by an attenuate bract.

Synonyms Erythrodes querceticola (Lindl.) Ames 1915; Erythrodes trinitatis Ames 1922; Goodyera quercicola Chapm. 1860; Microchilus querceticolus (Lindl.) D.Dietr. 1852; Orchiodes quercilobum Kuntze 1891; *Physurus querceticola Lindl. 1840; Physurus sagraeanus A. Rich. ?;

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Symbolae Antillanae Vol VI Orchidaceae Urban 1909 as Physurus sagaraenus; Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 19: 13. Costa Rica Schlechter 1923 as Physurus vaginatusNative Orchids of Trinidad Schultes 1960 as Erythrodes trinitatis; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965; Flora de Venezuela Foldats Volumen XV Part 1 1969 as Erythrodes querticola; Flora of the Lesser Antilles Garay & Sweet 1974 as Erythrodes querceticola drawing fide; Las Orquedias De El Salvador Vol 1 Hamer 1974 as Erythrodes querceticola drawing/photo fide; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 1080 Dodson 1984 drawing fide; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 1081 Dodson 1984 as Platythelys vaginata drawing ok; Flora Novo-Galaciana Vol 16 McVaugh 1985 as Playthelys vaginata; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 1221 Hamer 1985 as Erythrodes vaginata drawing hmm; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 1533 Atwood 1993 as Erythrodes vaginata

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