above; bracts acuminate, spreading, up to 8.5 ecm. long. 
Leaves five to eight, petiolate; petiole tubular-inflated 
below enveloping the stem, up to 8 cm. long; lamina 
oblique, ovate-elliptic to broadly elliptic, acute to sub- 
acuminate, rounded or tapering at the base, dark green 
above with a whitish mid-nerve, gray-green beneath, 
3-8.5 cm. long, 1.4-8 cm. wide. Inflorescence a rather 
densely flowered cylindrical spicate raceme, up to 7 cm. 
long and 2 cm. in diameter; rachis pubescent. Floral 
bracts ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, 4-7 mm. long, about 
2 mm. wide near the base. Flowers small, with pubescent 
pedicellate ovaries which are up to 6 mm. long. Sepals 
lanceolate to narrowly elliptic-lanceolate, acuminate or 
tapering to a narrowly subobtuse apex, 1-nerved, 4.8—5 
mm. long, about 1.5 mm. wide below the middle. Petals 
adherent to the dorsal sepal, semirhombic, narrowly cu- 
neate at the base, obtuse to subacute, 1-nerved, about 4.5 
mm. long and 1.5 mm. wide across the dilated middle 
portion. Lip produced at the base into a slightly bilobed 
saccate spur, about 7 mm. long including the spur; lam- 
ina thin, when spread out ovate (sometimes narrowly so), 
obtuse to acute, usually with the margins slightly undu- 
late, 38-nerved, 4 mm. long, 2.5 mm. wide at the base. 
Column short, thick, about 2.5 mm. long. 
Erythrodes ovatilabia is one of the few American spe- 
cies in the genus having a simple lip. Its nearest ally, 
E. secunda Ames from Mexico, is a much smaller plant 
with small ovate-subcordate leaves and a laxly few-flow- 
ered secund inflorescence. The essentially oval lip of . 
secunda has a thickened disc and a somewhat constricted 
crisped apex. The petals also are spatulate instead of 
being semirhombic as in LH. ovatilabia. 
Mexico: Oaxaca, Huautla de Jiménez, terrestrial, oak forest, July 
21, 1938, R. E. Schultes and B. P. Reko 407 (Herb. Ames). 
GuaTeMALA: Chiquimula, upper slopes of Montafia Jajurdn, in the 
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