Restrepia aristulifera Garay & Dunst. in Garay & Dunst. 1972 SUBGENUS Restrepia SECTION Pleurothallopsis Schltr. 1918
Photo by © Eric Hunt
Photo by © M. Vagner
Photo courtesy of © Lourens Grobler
TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer
to 
Common Name or Meaning The Small Awn Restrepia [refers to the awns at the base of each petal]
Flower Size .8" [2 cm]
Found in Antioquia, Norte de Santander, Cauca, and Nariño departemnts of Colombia, Merida state of Venezuela and Azuay, Pinchincha, Tungurahua and Morona-Santiago provinces of in cloud forests at elevations of 1800 to 2800 meters as a small to just medium sized, cool to cold growing epiphyte with an erect, elongate, stout ramicaul enveloped basally by 6 to 12, thin, whitish, compressed, somewhat imbricate, disitchous sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, often suffused with purple beneath, elliptical, acute, the base cuneate or rounded and constricted into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the spring and fall on a slender, 1.2" to 2" [3 to 5 cm] long, successively single flowered inflorescence with the flower produced in a fascile held along the back of the leaf and has a thin, tubular, longer than the ovary floral bract.
"Characterized by the large habit, often with prolifering ramicauls and with large flowers, the seplas measuring well over .12" [3 mm] in length. The immense sepals of some clones reach .24" [6 mm]. The synsepal is elliptical and boat-shaped, especially towards the base. The color is yellow and it is longitudinally striped in brown or red, but more or less confluent spots are present at the base. The lip is broadly oblong and truncate with an indistinct or absent isthmus beteween the hypochile and the epichile. The surface and margins of the epichile vary essentially from smooth to microscopically verrucose and serrulate. The hypochile is smooth and concave with the usual pair od f delicate, uncinate appendages. Differs from Restrepia brachypus in the largerflwoer with an oblong, essentially glaberous lip that contrasts with the fringed, subpandurate, three striped lip of the latter. Restrepia guttulata with the purple spotted synsepals appears distinctly diffferent there is little difference overall than the colors. The lips of both species are large, oblong and truncate, but the margims and surface of the blade of the lip os R guttulata vary from microscopically to distinctly denticulate and verrucose. " Luer 1996
Synonyms Restrepia aristulifera f. leathersii Luer 2012
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; *Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated Vol 5 Dunsterville & Garay 1966 drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol, 47 No 7 1978 photo fide; Orchids of Venezuela A Field Guide Vol 3 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 drawing fide; Orchideolgia Vol 16 No 1 1983; Native Colombian Orchids Vol 4 COS 1992 photo 1st soso 2nd dead on; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol VIII Systematics of Restrepia Luer 1996 drawing/photo fide; Oasis Vol 1 No 2 2000 photo; Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 3 Ramiro and Carnevali 2000 drawing fide; Australian Orchid Review Vol 66 No 5 2001 photo; Orquideas Nativas del Tachira Cesar Fernandez 2003 photo ok; Libro Rojo de Plantas De Colombia Vol 6 Primera Parte Saenz 2007; AOS Bulletin Vol 86 # 7 2017 photo fide; Harvard Papers in Botany, Vol. 17, No. 2, pp. 333 to 368 2012 MISCELLANEOUS NEW SPECIES IN THE PLEUROTHALLIDINAE (ORCHIDACEAE) Carlyle A. Luer as R aristulifera drawing fide;
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
