!Pleurothallis ruscifolia (Jacq.) R. Br. 1813 SUBGENUS Pleurothallis SECTION Pleurothallis SUBSECTION Pleurothallis SERIES Pleurothalls Luer 1986 Photo by © Eric Hunt and his Orchid Species Photo Website

Another Color Form Photo courtesy of Lourens Grobler ©

Fragrance Full ShadeHot to CoolMOSTLYSummer

Common Name The Helleborine Rusci Majoris-Like Leaf Pleurothallis

Flower Size 1/4 to 3/4" [6mm to 2 cm]

Found from Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil and Venezuela, French Guiana, Guyana, Surinam, Trinidad & Tobago, Windwards, Puerto Rico, Leewards, Jamaica?, Dominican Republic and Cuba as a miniature to small sized, caespitose, cool to hot growing epiphyte or lithophytic species in wet montane forests and piedmont forests at elevations of 40 to 2000 meters with a slender, terete ramicaul enveloped basally by a tubular scarious bract and another at the middle and carrying a single, apical, elliptic-lanceolate, attenuate to the short conduplicate petiole, acuminate leaf that blooms on a lateral, short inflorescence subtended with imbricating bracts that holds the fasciculate, tight globular clusters of single, occasionally successive, bilabiate, delicately fragrant flowers close to the leaf base and occurs mostly in the summer. This species is widespread and is the type for the genus as well as this subsection and can be variable in size.

Synonyms Dendrobium ruscifolium (Jacq.) Sw. 1799; *Epidendrum ruscifolium Jacq. 1760; Humboldtia ruscifolia (Jacq.) Kuntze 1891; Humboldtia succosa Pav. ex Lindl. 1830; Humboltia laurifolia (Kunth) Kuntze 1891; Humboltia ruscifolia (Jacq.) Kuntze 1891; Humboltia succosa Pav. ex Lindl. 1830; Pleurothallis glomerata Ames 1923; Pleurothallis laurifolia Kunth 1815; Pleurothallis multicaulis Poepp. & Endl. 1836; Pleurothallis ruscifolia var. caquetana Schltr. 1924; Pleurothallis succosa Lindl.1830

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Bonplandia Rchb.f 1854 as P laurifolia; Bonplandia Rchb.f 1856 as P succosa; Xenia Orchidaceae Rchb.f 1862 as P laurifolia drawing not; Symbolae Antillanae Vol VI Orchidaceae Urban 1909; Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 19: 25. Costa Rica Schlechter 1923; Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 19: 110. Costa Rica Schlechter 1923; Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 19: 194. Costa Rica Schlechter 1923; Beitrage Zur Orchideenkunde Von Colombia 27:55 Schlechter 1924 P ruscifolia var caquetana; Native Orchids of Trinidad Schultes 1960; Flora de Venezuela Foldats Volumen XV Part 2 1969; AOS Bulletin Vol 48 No 10 1979 photo; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 256 Atwood 1980; Systematics of Pleurothallis Vol 3 Luer 1986; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 1383 Atwood 1989; Icones Orchidacearum Peruviarum Plate 355 Bennett & Christenson 1995; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XVII Systematics of Pleurothallis Section Abortivae, Truncatae, Subsection Acroniae, Subgenera Dracontia and Uncifera Luer 1998 drawing fide; Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana Vol 7 Steyermark, Berry, Yatskievych and Holst 2003; Orquideas de la Serrania del Baudo Misas Urreta 2006;

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