Pleurothallis tridentata Klotzsch 1840 SUBGENUS Pleurothallis SECTION Macrophyllae-Fasciculatae Lindl 1859

Flower Closeup Photos by © Francis J Quesada-Pallares

Another Plant? Photos by © Pieter C. Brouwer and his Nature Photo Website

Common Name The Three Toothed Pleurothallis

Flower Size .1" [3 mm]

Found in Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru? and Bolivia? in rainforests at elevations of 400 to 2000 meters as a mini-miniature to small sized, hot to cool growing epiphyte with slender, erect to ascending ramicauls enveloped by a close, tubular sheath below the middle and another at the base and carrying a fascile of single, apical, suberect to spreading, coriaceous, narrowly ovate, acute, rounded, shallowly cordate, sessile leaf that blooms in the spring, summer and fall on a short [1 to 2 mm] long, successively single flowered inflorescence subtended by a spathe and carrying a non-resupinate flower

CAUTION It seems that5 this is a very variable flowered orchid but still I am not happy with either of these two determinations, the first [More like P nephrocardia] is more correct as it has a single flower but according to Luer the colors are wrong and the petals are not reflexed. The second has a fascile of flowers all open at the same time [More like P ionantha] and Luer states that it is a fascile of successive single flowers but the colors are more correct and the petals are reflexed. Can anyone out there sort these out? I get the impression that these several species [P ionantha, P nephrocardia and P tridentata] have been kept separate and have only been united of late as they have found intermediary specimen sharing the traits of both parents.

Synonyms Acronia tridentata (Klotzsch) Luer 2005; Humboldtia tridentata (Klotzsch) Kuntze 1891; Pleurothallis ionantha Rchb.f. 1850; Pleurothallis nephrocardia Schltr. 1919; Zosterophyllanthos ionanthus (Rchb.f.) Szlach. & Marg. 2001; Zosterophyllanthos nephrocardius (Schltr.) Szlach. & Marg. 2001; Zosterophyllanthos tridentatus (Klotzsch) Szlach. & Marg. 2001

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list IPNI ; Xenia Orchidaceae Vol 3 Reichenbach 1896 drawing fide; Die Orchideen der Sudamerikanischen Kordillerenstaaten I Venezuela Schlechter 1919 as P nephrocardia; Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated Vol 1 Dunsterville & Garay 1959 as Pleurothallis ionantha drawing fide to the third photo; Orchids of Peru Vol 2 Schweinfurth 1959; Venezuela Orchids Illustrated Vol 2 Dunsterville & Garay 1961 drawing fide; Venezuelan Orchids Vol 4 Dunsterville & Garay 1966 as Pleurothallis nephrocardia drawing fide; Flora Of Venezuela Volumen XV Parte 2 Foldats 1970 drawing fide; Orchids of Venezuela, An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 3 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 as P ionantha drawing fide to the third photo; Orchids of Venezuela, An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 3 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 as P nephrocardia drawing fide; Orchids of Venezuela, An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 3 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum III Systematic of Pleurothallis Luer 1986; Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 3 Ramiro and Carnevali 2000 as P ionantha drawing fide to the third photo; Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 3 Ramiro and Carnevali 2000 as P nephrocardia drawing fide to the 1 and 2nd photos; Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 3 Ramiro and Carnevali 2000 drawing fide; Orchids of Bolivia Vol 1 Ibisch & Vasquez 2000; Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana Vol 7 Steyermark, Berry, Yatskievych and Holst 2003; Icones Pleurothalidinarum vol XXVII Acronia Luer 2005 drawing fide as Acronia tridentata;

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