Lepanthes microprosartima Tobar & M.J.Gavil. 2021 SUBGENUS Lepanthes SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Lepanthes
LCDP Photo/TYPE drawing by © Francisco Tobar and Phytokeys 180: 111–132 2021
Common Name The Tiny Appendix Lepanthes [refers to its being on the border between the 2 provinces]
Flower Size .16" [4 mm]
Found in Pichincha province of Ecuador evergreen montane forests at elevations of 3200 to 3800 meters as a medium sized, cold growing terrestrial with arcuate, new stems arise from the apex of the old ones superposed, 4 to 16 noded ramicauls enveloped completely by light brown, minutely pubescent lepanthiform sheaths with microscopically muricate and acuminate ostium and carrying a single, apical, arcuate, oblong-ovate, light to dark green, minutely serrate along the margin, long-acuminate apically, cuneate and contracted below into a petiolate base leaf that blooms in the spring and summer on a racemose, one per stem, peduncle filiform, .08" [2 mm] long, provided with a basal bract, on the bottom of the leaf, shorter than the leaf, .08 to 1.4" [2 to 3.5 cm] long overall, successively single, few flowered inflorescence with papiraceous, obliquely infundibuliform, glabrous and long-apiculate floral bracts.
"The closest species are Lepanthes mirador from north-east Ecuador and Central Cordillera of Colombia, and L. tungurahuae from central Ecuador, but is easily distinguished from both by the overlapping secondary stems. Lepanthes microprosartima also differs from L. mirador in the light green leaves and oblong-lanceolate appendix (vs. leaves dark purple in the abaxial surface and appendix oblong, with a bilobed apical segment). From L. tungurahuae the new species is distinguished by the oblong leaves (vs. ovate elliptical), the petal lobes revolute, marked with red at the edges (vs. not revolute and marked with red at the base) and the blades of the labellum ovate (vs. blades narrowing oblong-ovate). In habit it also resembles L. obandoi from the north east of Ecuador, but the new species has an inflorescence shorter than the leaf (vs. longer than the leaf.), and the petals have triangular, unequal lobes (vs. lobes subequal, lanceolate-oblong)." Tobar , Lopex, Gavilanes, Monteros, Garcia and Graham 2021
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Phytokeys 180: 111–132 Three new endemic species of Lepanthes (Orchidaceae, Pleurothallidinae) from the highlands of Ecuador Tobar , Lopex, Gavilanes, Monteros, Garcia and Graham 2021 Drawing/photo fide
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