Dryadella simula vs D. elata

I bought a bunch of plants from Andy's Orchids a few weeks ago and he sent me a bonus Dryadella whose identity he was unsure of. He thought the plant was Dryadella elata but it turns out to be Dryadella simula. The easiest way to distinguish the two are the petal and column morphology. D. elata has downward pointing teeth on the column, and prominent petals that stick out of the tubular base of the calyx. Both of those characters are absent from D. simula. I came to this ID after using Carl Luer's key to the species. The key was a little tricky because the numbering in the second half is one off, but I'm pretty sure I keyed the plant out correctly:

1' Mature leaf not less than 3 mm wide
13 Mature leaf more than 25 mm long
31' Dorsal sepal with apex acuminate to caudate (if you select couplet 31 here you get D. elata)
38' Dorsal sepal not with tail 1 mm long, 1 mm thick (my plant measures 2.1 x 0.7)
39' Column without a descending tooth
42 Dorsal sepal acuminate into an acute tip or tail shorter than the blade
43 Mature leaf usually more than 4 cm long (my plant: 6.5 cm long)
44' Peduncle less than 1 cm long (my plant: 1 cm long)
this is where the couplet numbers are off, I think 44' leads to 45 though
45' Sepals not minutely caudate; petals not pubescent
46' Lateral sepals contracted into short tails
47 Petals obliquely truncate at the apex with a lobule on the lower margin... D. simula

My plant:


Luer's Illustrations:

 

Thanks! My plant forms a tight clump. There is one species called Dryadella dodsonii that has sort of a climbing habit: http://www.orchidspecies.com/drydodsoni.htm


of your plant?

 

Cool! I would love to know what you find out. It seems like lip morphology in these plants can be variable, and illustrations can also be misleading. Luer worked from rehydrated specimens frequently so the lip in the illustration I shared of D. dodsonii may not be 100% accurate. I think the growth habit is pretty distinctive though! I think D. dodsonii is the only species reported with a climbing habit.