Lepanthes acostaei Schltr. 1923 SUBGENUS Lepanthes SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Lepanthes
Photo courtesy of Walter Teague
TYPE Drawing by © Schlechter and The Epidendra Website
Common Name Acosta's Lepanthes [20th cen Costa Rican Botanist]
Flower Size .1" [2.5 mm]
Found in Nicaragua and Costa Rica at elevations of 540 to 650 meters as a miniature sized, warm growing epiphyte with black, slender, reclining to erect ramicauls enveloped by about 4, lepanthiform sheaths and carrying a single, apical, ovate, purplish beneath, round apically, basally petiolate leaf that blooms at most any time of the year on a short, sucessively single, to 20 flowered, racemose inflorescence.
CAUTION Said to be a synonym of L blepharistes by Kew but I just don't see it if what I have for both species is correct. I have kept them separate pending new references.
"Similar to the habit of L lindleyana and the flowers of L cilisepala. Differs from L lindleyana in the ciliate sepals and the petals and lip. Differs from L cilisepala in the narrower leaves and the lip shape." Schlechter 1923
Synonyms Lepanthes blepharistes Rchb.f. 1866
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Checked OK Lankester's Epidendra Website CR ; Checked Type OK, * Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 19: 280. Costa Rica Schlechter 1923; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 815 Dodson 1983 as Lepanthes blepharistes
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