Acianthera aphthosa

Description

Acianthera aphthosa is a species of orchid. It was first described by John Lindley in 1838 as Pleurothallis aphthosa, but was assigned to the genus, Acianthera, in 2001 by Pridgeon and Mark W. Chase. It is native to Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, and Peru. Acianthera is a genus of orchids native to the tropical parts of the Western Hemisphere, especially Brazil. It was first described in 1842 but was not widely recognized until recently. Most of the species were formerly placed under Pleurothallis subgenus Acianthera. This splitting is a result of recent DNA sequencing.