Lepanthes acarina Luer 1983 SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Elongatae 1993
Photo by © Sebastian Vieira and his Flickr Orchid Photo Website
Photo by © Alexander Hirtz
Photo by © Wiel Driessen and his Flickr Orchid Photo Website
TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jant Renz Herbaria Website
Common Name The Acarina-Like Lepanthes [Refers to the flower appearing like a mite]
Flower Size 1/8" [3.5 mm]
Found in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Boliva on mossy twigs at elevations of 1100 to 2750 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cool to cold growing epiphyte with slender, erect ramicauls enveloped by 3 to 8, close, microscopically scabrous, lepanthiform sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical-ovate, subacute to obtuse, rounded basally and contracted into a petiolate base leaf that blooms in the winter, spring and fall on a subdense, .15 to .4" [3 to 10 mm] long, successively few to several flowered racemose inflorescence that is longer than the leaf and has a muricate floral bract.
"Easily recognized by the tiny plant habit and the minute spiculate flowers carried on a subcongested raceme that extends beyond the apex of the leaf." Luer 1996
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Phytologia 54:326 Luer 1983; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XIV Systematics of Draconanthes, Lepanthes subgenus Marsipanthes and subgenus Lepanthes of Ecuador Luer 1996 drawing fide; Orchid Species of Peru Zelenko Bermudez 2009 photo fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXXI 2010 drawing fide; Flora of Ecuador No 88 Lepanthes and affiliates Dodson & Luer 2011 drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXXII 2012 drawing fide; Orchids A Colombian Treasure Vol 3 Ortiz & Uribe 2019 photo fide; Orquideas de Farallones de Cali Galindo-Tarazona, Haelterman, Zuluaga Trochez and Sebastian Moreno 2020 photo fide
Checked Luer OK
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