Platystele hirtzii Luer 1979 Photo by © Lourens Grobler

Inflorescence Photo courtesy of Rudy Bachmann and Slogarden"s Web Page.

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Common Name Hirtz' Platystele [German Engineer and Orchid Collector late 1900's]

Flower Size .4" [1 cm]

Found in Ecuador in mist forests at elevations of 2000 to 2700 meters as a cool to cold growing epiphyte with erect, slender ramicauls enveloped basally b y2 to 3 thin, ribbed, imbricating sheaths and carrying asingle, apical, erect, coriaceous, narrowly ellioptic-obovate, subacute, narrowly cuneate belowi nto the petiolate base leaf that blooms on a weak, suberect, distantly and successively flowered, racemose, to 2 3/4" [7 cm] long inflorescence arising laterally from the ramicaula and has thin floral bracts.

References W3 Tropicos Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Systematics of Platystele Vol 7 1990; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 4 Dodson 2003;

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