Phloeophila Hoehne & Schltr. (1926: 201)

Chiron, Guy R., Karremans, Adam P. & Berg, Cassio Van Den, 2016, Nomenclatural notes in the Pleurothallidinae (Orchidaceae): Phloeophila, Phytotaxa 270 (1), pp. 56-62 : 57

Phloeophila Hoehne & Schltr. (1926: 201)

Synonyms: Luerella Braas (1979: 108) , Ophidion Luer (1982: 79) .

Phloeophila originally included only three species ( Hoehne & Schlechter 1926), whereas four species were considered to belong in the genus by Luer (2006). Here, we adhere to the broad circumscription of Phloeophila that accounts for about a dozen species and includes the genera Luerella and Ophidion ( Pridgeon 2005) . We slightly modify that circumscription to exclude a few species that belong elsewhere. In that sense, Phloeophila includes nine species distributed from Belize through Central America and the Antilles to Bolivia and Brazil. The highest diversity is found in the Andes of Colombia and Ecuador.