Pleurothallis truncata (?)

[cnycharles]

A few months ago I won a pleuro at our orchid clubs' silent auction. The name on the tag had first read 'pleuro truncata' and the truncata had been scribbled out and 'restrepioides' had replaced it. I posted pics of the plant and then newly developing buds plus some i.d. requests. Discussion and web links revealed that this plant doesn't structurally resemble restrepioides, and others thought that it might be truncata (it was then that I discovered that the name under the scribble said 'truncata'

It started flowering last week, and the flowers are bright orange and tiny! They don't really open up that much, so even taking some very close-up pictures, it's hard to tell what it 'looks like' . It's also so completely deep orange that it's hard to make out details

This really is a handful of firsts for me: it's a pleuro and it's alive, it's growing nicely, it flowered, the flowers are bright orange and don't look like a 'usual' pleuro to me! (though many are very different) one flower spike did dry up and some flowers on the other one did abort, as did a few on the largest spike

and yes, I really need to clean my lens of all those spots! (or maybe it's the image plate)

whole plant, most flowers upper right

two mid-bottom flowers are open and the one upper-left

some of the back flowers were open, but now look like they are shut.
I don't know how long the flowers are supposed to last, and there are
fungus gnats so they could have been pollinated

extreme zoom trying to show detail. the lip or ventral sepal forms a bucket, and hasn't 'opened' on any of the flowers

actually, looking at it and thinking about it, the flowers look like those coffee urns where you press the back thumb button and the lip pops up, and then you let go to have it close. it looks like to be 'open' just the top opens up...

 

[Ron-NY]

very nice!

 

[littlefrog]

Doesn't look like Pl. restrepiodes... That is way different, shape, size, color. you name it.

It is Pl. truncata.

 

[SlipperFan]

Cute little flowers -- but I was wondering about the name, also.

 

[NYEric]

Yep, truncata. well done and GREAT photos!

 

[cnycharles]

Thanks. I had it in the sun because it was actually out for a change, though I should have gone down to the basement and dug out my white fabric 'light box'; It would have cut down on the glare

for something so small, it was surprisingly difficult to get an angle where you could actually see any detail

 

[stefpix]

the dust spots are on the low pass filter in front of the sensor. You can get it cleaned for 30 / 50 bucks by a repair shop. What camera is it? some of the more recent ones can take some dust off with vibrations. You could try to remove some dust with a rocket blower (hand pump). Check Photo Tech in NYC. I habe a Pleuro in my bathroom that keeps growing (no blooms). I killed Masdevallias but Pleurothallis and Restrepias seem to do ok.

 

[cnycharles]

okay, good to know it's not on the plate/sensor. it's a canon 30d. is the canned air good for cleaning like this? one time I tried using some and some moisture came out which I wasn't expecting.

someone here suggested if this one had grown for 4 years but hadn't bloomed to try keeping it cooler in the winter, so I put it on the north kitchen windowsill. that definitely matched 'cooler'... it didn't have lots of flowers, but had some, and tons of new leaves are growing all the time