Plate 1 figs. a–e · 2 observations
This species has been photographed under an open licence only 2 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.
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 20 botanical countries
| Region | TDWG code | Continent |
|---|---|---|
| Belize | BLZ | SOUTHERN AMERICA |
| Colombia | CLM | |
| Costa Rica | COS | |
| Cuba | CUB | |
| Dominican Republic | DOM | |
| El Salvador | ELS | |
| Guatemala | GUA | |
| Haiti | HAI | |
| Honduras | HON | |
| Jamaica | JAM | |
| Nicaragua | NIC | |
| Panamá | PAN | |
| Puerto Rico | PUE | |
| Venezuela | VEN | |
| Mexico Central | MXC | NORTHERN AMERICA |
| Mexico Gulf | MXG | |
| Mexico Northeast | MXE | |
| Mexico Northwest | MXN | |
| Mexico Southeast | MXT | |
| Mexico Southwest | MXS |
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.
Where it actually grows measured, from 72 observations
| Condition | 5th percentile | Median | 95th percentile |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coldest month, mean daily low | 8.1 °C | 15.0 °C | 22.9 °C |
| Warmest month, mean daily high | 23.1 °C | 28.3 °C | 30.9 °C |
| Annual rainfall | 1,364 mm | 4,160 mm | 4,312 mm |
| Rainfall in the driest quarter | 16 mm | 78 mm | 232 mm |
It is barely found anywhere that freezes. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 72 research-grade observations of Pleurothallis quadrifida that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.
This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.
Also published as 26 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.
- Anathallis racemiflora Pridgeon & M.W.Chase
- Dendrobium quadrifidum Lex.
- Gomesa stricta Spreng.
- Humboltia incompta (Rchb.f.) Kuntze
- Humboltia longissima (Lindl.) Kuntze
- Humboltia nicaraguensis (Liebm.) Kuntze
- Humboltia quadrifida (Lex.) Kuntze
- Humboltia racemiflora Kuntze
- Lalexia quadrifida (Lex.) Luer
- Loddigesia quadrifida (Lex.) Luer
- Physanthera callistachys Bertero ex Steud.
- Physosiphon nicaraguensis Liebm.
- Pleurothallis ghiesbreghtiana A.Rich. & Galeotti
- Pleurothallis ghiesbreghtiana var. cleistogama L.O.Williams
- Pleurothallis incompta Rchb.f.
- Pleurothallis longissima Lindl.
- Pleurothallis lyroglossa Schltr.
- Pleurothallis nicaraguensis (Liebm.) Rchb.f.
- Pleurothallis niederleinii Schltr.
- Pleurothallis racemiflora Lindl. ex G.Lodd.
- Rodriguezia stricta (Spreng.) Steud.
- Specklinia quadrifida (Lex.) Luer
- Stelis nicaraguensis (Liebm.) Solano & Soto Arenas
- Stelis quadrifida (Lex.) Solano & Soto Arenas
and 2 more.
Sourcesevery claim on this page
- World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
- iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
- USDA PLANTS Database. common name, checklist symbol PLRA2. public domain. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
- 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.