Pleurothallis tripterantha Rchb.f 1854 SUBGENUS Mirabilia Luer 1986
Photo by Eric Hunt
Photo by © Jay Pfahl
Photo by Dale and Deni Borders
Drawing by © Carl Luer
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Common Name The Three Winged Pleurothallis [refers to the curved sepals]
Flower Size 3/8" [1 cm]
Found in Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, and Argentina in wet montane forests at elevations of 900 to 2700 meters in altitude as a creeping, miniature sized, warm to cold growing, caespitose epiphyte with a very short ramicaul carrying a single, apical, oblong, acute, gradually narrowing below into the conduplicate, petiolate base, coriaceous leaf that blooms in the late spring and summer on a apical, racemose, horizontal-arching to laxly pendulous, 1.2 to 17.6" [3 to 44 cm], including the .8 to 4" [2 to 10 cm] long peduncle, longer than the leaf, loosely, simultaneously few to many flowered inflorescence with shorter than the pedicels floral bracts that has opening flowers.
"The ramicauls are much shorter than the narrow leaves they bear. The inflorescence is pendent to arching, and more or less simultaneously flowered with the flowers commonly cleistogamus. The sepals are fleshy with a tall carina that includes the ovary." Luer 2006
Synonyms Anthereon tripteranthus (Rchb.f.) Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001; Humboldtia procumbens (Lindl.) Kuntze 1891; Humboldtia tripterantha (Rchb.f.) Kuntze 1891; Humboldtia tripterygia (Rchb.f.) Kuntze 1891; Humboltia procumbens (Lindl.) Kuntze 1891; Humboltia tripterantha (Rchb. f.) Kuntze 1891; Humboltia tripterygia (Rchb. f.) Kuntze 1891; Lepanthes tricarinata (Poepp. & Endl.) Barb. Rodr. 1882; Masdevallia aperta Kraenzl. 1921; Masdevallia carpophora Kraenzl. 1921; Masdevallia tricarinata (Barb.Rodr.) F.Lehm. & Kraenzl. 1899; Pabstiella aptera [Kraenzl] Pupulin 2020; Pabstiella tripterantha (Rchb.f.) F.Barros 2002; Pleurothallis aperta (Kraenzl.) Ames 1921; Pleurothallis hamata Rolfe ex Ames 1923; Pleurothallis hunteriana Schltr. 1922; Pleurothallis medellinensis Schltr. 1920; Pleurothallis procumbens Lindl. 1859; Pleurothallis trialata Cogn. 1896; Pleurothallis tripterygia Rchb. f. 1854; Scaphosepalum carpophorum (Kraenzl.) Garay 1967; Specklinia tripterantha (Rchb.f.) Luer 2004
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Lankester's Epidendra Website CR;
Bonplandia 2(2): 24. 1854 as P tripterygia;
Xenia Orchidaceae Rchb.f 1854 drawing;
Xenia Orchidaceae Rchb.f 1854 as P triperygia drawing;
Revis. Gen. Pl. 2: 668. 1891 as Humboldtia tripterantha;
Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 17: 20. Panama Schlechter 1922 as P hunteriana;
Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated Vol 1 Dunsterville & Garay 1959 as P procumbens drawing good;
Flora de Venezuela Volumen 15 Parte 2 Foldats 1970 drawing good;
Orchids of Venezuela, An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 3 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 as P tripterygia drawing good;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Systematics of Pleurothallis Vol 3 Luer 1986
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Systematics of Pleurothallis Vol 3 Luer 1986 drawing fide;
Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Series II plate 0286 Dodson & Vasquez 1989 drawing fide;
Icones Orchidacearum Peruviarum Plate 553 Bennett & Christenson 1998 drawing ok;
Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 3 Ramiro and Carnevali 2000 as P tripterygia drawing good;
Orchids of Bolivia Vasquez & Ibisch Vol 1 2000 photo/drawing fide;
Lindleyana Vol 16 No 4 2001 as Antheron tripteranthus;
Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica Vol 3 Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVI Pleurothallis subgenus Acianthera and Three Allied subgenera, A Second Century of new Species of Stelis of Ecuador, Epibator, Ophidion and Zootrophion Luer 2004as Specklinia tripternatha;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVIII A Reconsideration of Masdevallia Systematics of Specklinia Luer 2006 as Pabstiella tripterantha
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVIII A Reconsideration of Masdevallia Systematics of Specklinia Luer 2006 as Pabstiella tripterantha drawing fide;
The Organ Mountain Range Its History and Its Orchids Miller, Warren, Miller and Seehawer 2008 drawing fide;
Orchids of Costa Rica Vol 5 Morales 2009 photo fide;
Mille et Une Mini Orchideees Roguenant 2009 as Pabstiella tripterantha photo fide;
Orquideas del Valle de Aburra Medellin Colombia Orqidelogia 2014 photo fide;
AOS Bulletin Vol #9 2019 as Pabstiella tripterantha photo fide;
FILOGENIA MOLECULAR E BIOGEOGRAFIA DE Pabstiella BRIEGER & SENGHAS (ORCHIDACEAE NICOLÁS GUTIÉRREZ MORALES 2019 photo fide as Pabstiella tripterantha photo fide;
Vanishing Beauty, Native Costa Rican Orchids Vol 2 Lacaena to Pteroglossa Pupulin 2020 as Pabstiella aptera photo fide
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