Lepanthes rudipetala Hespenh. & Dod 1993 SUBGENUS Lepanthes SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Lepanthes

TYPE Drawing by © Dod and Moscosoa 7: 193 Dod 1993

LATE EARLY

Common Name The Rudimentary Petal Lepanthes [refers to the very small petals]

Flower Size .08" [2 mm]

Found in the Dominican Republic in primary forests at elevations of 1400 to 1700 meters as a small sized, cool growing epiphyte with a few ascending to erect ramicauls envelopepd by 4 to 8, ribbed and mcroscopically denticulate lepanthiform sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, convex above, ovate to suborbicular, obtuse, rounded below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the late winter and early spring on 1 to 4, starts shorter becomes longer than the leaf, arising on the back of the leaf, distally distichous, dense, .08"+ [2 cm or more] long, successively single to 28 flowered inflorescence.

"Characerized by the medium sized, ovate leaf with a cingested, successively flowered inflorescence that nears the leafs length. The sepals are sharply subacute and the petals are transversely reniform and very small. The lip lamninae arehemisperical and cover the column and the incurved tios are under the column.

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Moscosoa 7: 191 Dod 1993 drawing fide; lepanrubripetala.jpg

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