Pleurothallis wilsonii Lindl.

  • Authority

    Ackerman, James D. 1995. An orchid flora of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 73: 1-203.

  • Family

    Orchidaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Pleurothallis wilsonii Lindl.

  • Description

    Species Description - Plants epiphytic or lithophytic, to 7 cm tall. Roots scattered along rhizome, slender, 0.5-1 mm diam. Rhizome slender, creeping, 1 mm diam. Stems (ramicauls) slender, suberect to pendent, to 5 cm long, 0.5 mm diam., unifoliate. Leaves apical, sessile, coriaceous, linear-lanceolate, acuminate to a minutely bifid apex, 2-5 cm long, 5-9 mm wide. Inflorescences terminal, 1 to several, fasciculate, peduncles to 10 mm long, produced from the leaf axil and subtended by a short conduplicate sheath, racemes rest upon the leaf, 1-2-flowered; floral bracts very inconspicuous. Flowers yellow-orange with red-striped sepals, resupinate. Pedicellate ovary to 5 mm long. Dorsal sepal oblong-lanceolate to subspatulate, rounded, 3.5-4 mm long; lateral sepals connate for more than half their length, resulting synsepal broadly ovate with a bifid apex, ca. 4.5 mm long, 3 mm wide. Petals thin, margins serrulate, subspatulate, 2-2.5 mm long. Lip attached to column foot, obscurely trilobed, fleshy, oblong-ligulate, finely papillose, upper half denticulate, to 2.5 mm long. Column slender, 2-2.5 mm long; foot ca. 1 mm long; pollinia minute. Fruits obliquely ellipsoidal, 7-10 mm long.

  • Discussion

    3. Pleurothallis wilsonii Lindley, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 3, 1: 326. 1858. Type. Wilson & Wullschlaegel 1079, from Bethabara, Jamaica (holotype, K-L). Phenology & Pollination. Plants flower in the late summer and fall and occasionally at other times of the year. Fruits are produced in the fall and winter. Breeding system and pollinators are unknown.

  • Distribution

    General Distribution. Greater Antilles and Guadeloupe.

    Guadeloupe South America|