Draconanthes bufonis (Luer & Hirtz) Luer 1996
Photo by © Carlo Balisterieri
Photo by © Lisa Thoerle
TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer
LATE
Common Name The Toad-Like Draconanthes [refers to the warty sepals]
Flower Size 1/4" [8mm]
Found in southern Ecuador in very cold wet cloud forests at elevations of 2600 to 3200 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cold growing epiphyte with erect to horizontal, slender ramicauls enveloped by 4 to 7, pubescent, lepanthiform sheaths with dilated ostia and carrying a single, erect, coriaceous, purple below, narrowly elliptical, acute, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the late winter and early spring on a behind the leaf, sublax, 1" [2.5 cm] long, successively few flowered inflorescence often with 2 flowers open at any one time.
"Similar to D aberrans but differs mostly in the smaller habit with hsort, straight racemes." Luer 1996
Synonyms *Lepanthes bufonis Luer & Hirtz 1987
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Lindleyana 2: 96 Luer 1987 as L bufonis Drawing fide; *Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XIV Systematics of Draconanthes, Lepanthes subgenus Marsipanthes and subgenus Lepanthes of Ecuador Luer 1996 drawing fide; Orchid Digest Vol 62 #2 1998 as Lepanthes bufonis photo fide; Rudolf Schlechter Die Orchideen Lieferung 43/3 2001; AOS Bulletin Vol 76 No 7 2007 drawing fide; Flora of Ecuador No 87 225[3] Orchidaceae Dodson & Luer 2010 drawing/photo fide;
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