Pleurothallis tuerckheimii Schltr. 1912 SUBGENUS Dracontia Luer 1986 Photo courtesy of Eric Hunt plant grown by OrchidMania
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Common Name Tuerckheim's Pleurothallis [German Orchid Collector late 1800's early 1900's]
Flower Size 1" [2.5 cm]
Found from Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Costa Rica and Panama as a medium sized, hot to cool growing epiphyte in mixed oak-pine cloud forests at elevations of 700 to 2400 meters with erect ramicauls enveloped basally by 2 to 3, somewhat inflated sheaths and carrying a single, apical, elliptic to oval or lanceolate, obtuse, narrowing belowq intothe conduplicate petiolate base, coriaceous leaf that blooms in the winter on a racemose, erect, to 14" [to 35 cm] long, loosely several to many [to 20] flowered inflorescence arising from a large, inflated basal spathe with simultaneously opening flowers.
Synonyms Dracontia tuerckheimii (Schltr.) Luer 2004; Pleurothallis megachlamys Schltr. 1923; Stelis megachlamys (Schltr.) Pridgeon & M.W. Chase 2002; Stelis megachlamys subsp. teotepecensis Soto Arenas 2002 publ. 2003; Stelis tuerckheimii (Schltr.) Pridgeon & M.W. Chase 2001;
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 19: 108. Costa Rica Schlechter 1923 as P megachlamys; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 1129 Dodson 1984; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Systematics of Pleurothallis Vol 3 Luer 1986; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XVII Systematics of Pleurothallis Section Abortivae, Truncatae, Subsection Acroniae, Subgenera Dracontia and Uncifera Luer 1998 drawing fide; Oasis Vol 1 No 1 2000 photo; Orchid Australia Vol 12 No 2 2000 photo; Lindleyana Vol 16 No 4 2001 as Stelis tuerckheimii
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