Acianthera polystachya(Ruiz & Pav.) Pupulin

WFO wfo-0001333775 Accepted WFO 2026-06 4 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–d · 3 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 3 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Acianthera polystachya, photographed by desertnaturalist
fig. a desertnaturalist, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-06-30 / obs. 141955771
Acianthera polystachya, photographed by Nicolás Baresch Uribe
fig. b Nicolás Baresch Uribe, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 99412356
Acianthera polystachya, photographed by Nicolás Baresch Uribe
fig. c Nicolás Baresch Uribe, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 99412318
Acianthera polystachya, photographed by Nicolás Baresch Uribe
fig. d Nicolás Baresch Uribe, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 99412395

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 6 botanical countries

Regions where Acianthera polystachya is native: Bolivia, Brazil North, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela BoliviaBrazil NorthColombiaEcuadorPeruVenezuela
Native distribution of Acianthera polystachya, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Bolivia BOL SOUTHERN AMERICA
Brazil North BZN
Colombia CLM
Ecuador ECU
Peru PER
Venezuela VEN

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Also published as 18 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Acianthera casapensis (Lindl.) Pridgeon & M.W.Chase
  • Acianthera chamensis (Lindl.) Pridgeon & M.W.Chase
  • Acianthera coffeicola (Schltr.) Pridgeon & M.W.Chase
  • Acianthera harpophylla (Rchb.f.) Luer
  • Acianthera phyllostachys (Schltr.) Pridgeon & M.W.Chase
  • Humboltia casapensis (Lindl.) Kuntze
  • Humboltia chamensis (Lindl.) Kuntze
  • Humboltia harpophylla (Rchb.f.) Kuntze
  • Humboltia polystachya Ruiz & Pav.
  • Pleurothallis casapensis Lindl.
  • Pleurothallis chamensis Lindl.
  • Pleurothallis coffeicola Schltr.
  • Pleurothallis harpophylla Rchb.f.
  • Pleurothallis phyllostachys Schltr.
  • Pleurothallis triangularis Klotzsch & H.Karst.
  • Pleurothallis triquetra Klotzsch ex Lindl.
  • Pleurothallis wolfiana Schltr.
  • Stelis polystachya (Ruiz & Pav.) Willd.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.