Lepanthes synema Luer & Hirtz 1993 SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Elongatae 1993

TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website

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Common Name The Kinsmen Lepanthes [refers to its similarity with several species]

Flower Size .2" [5 mm]

Found in Zamora-Chinchipe province of Ecuador in subparamo and elfin forests on twigs at elevations around 2750 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cold growing epiphyte with a slender, erect ramicaul enveloped by 2 to 4, minutely ciliate lepanthiform sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, suborbicular, obtuse to rounded, rounded and contracted below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the later summer on a slender, erect, loose, .8" [2 cm] long, successively single, few flowered inflorescence.

"Similar to L caudata, L floresii, L jimburae, L paradoxa, and L vermicularis but L synema is distinguished by the entire sepals, oblong, nearly equal lobes of the petals and a small triangular appendix." Luer 1996.

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Novon 3: 452 Luer 1993 drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XIV Systematics of Draconanthes, Lepanthes subgenus Marsipanthes and subgenus Lepanthes of Ecuador Luer 1996 drawing fide; Flora of Ecuador No 88 Lepanthes and affiliates Dodson & Luer 2011 drawing fide

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