Amesiella monticola is a miniature species of epiphytic orchid native to the Philippines. The specific epithet "monticola" refers to the montaneous habitat of the species. Monticola is a combination of "mons" or "montis", meaning mountain and "cola" or "colere" meaning "inhabitant" or "dweller".Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London, United Kingdom: Christopher Helm. pp. 260, 348. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4

Description These monopodial herbs form small, leathery leaves.Teoh E.S. (2021) Amesiella Schltr. ex Garay. In: Orchid Species from Himalaya and Southeast Asia Vol. 1 (A - E). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58872-4_9 The genus Amesiella forms white flowers with long spurs.Eur. J. Entomol. 112(2): 393–397, 2015 doi: 10.14411/eje.2015.031 ISSN 1210-5759 (print), 1802-8829 (online) The 1–6 very large flowers in relation to the vegetative parts of the plants are borne on short, axillary racemes. They have a characteristic long, twisted spur, indicating moth pollination.Genera Orchidacearum Volume 6: Epidendroideae (Part 3) Alec M. Pridgeon / Phillip J. Cribb / Mark W. Chase / Finn N. Rasmussen 2014 OUP Oxford ISBN 978-0-19-100389-9 The flowers are purely white, devoid of any golden pigmentation of the labellum. This separates it from Amesiella philippinensis.

Taxonomy By some this species is treated as a mere variation of Amesiella philippinensis. Hence, it is synonymous with Amesiella philippinensis var. monticola.

Conservation This species is critically endangered and its population is decreasing.

References