Lepanthes alkaia Luer & R.Escobar 1985 SUBGENUS Lepanthes SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Lepanthes
TYPE Photo/TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Webpage
LATER 
Common Name The Lion's Tail Lepanthes [refers to the long pubescent appendix with a shaggy tip]
Flower Size .2" [5 mm]
Found in Santander department of Colombia at elevations around 2150 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cold growing epiphyte with erect to suberect ramicauls enveloped by 5 to 7, shortly ciliate, lepanthiform sheaths and carrying a single, suberect to spreading, coriaceous, ovate, acute, acuminate, tridenticulate, rounded to cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the summer on a filiform, congested, distichous, .66 to .8" [1.7 to 2 cm] long including the .48 to .6" [1.2 to 1.5 cm] long peduncle, successively several flowered inflorescence arising on top of the leaf
Related to L dryades but L alkalaia has long-pubescent petals with only a minute remenant of a lateal lobe and the elongated pubescent appendix witha concave, bilobulate, long-ciliate apical segment." Luer & Escobar 1985
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * American Orchid Society Bulletin 54: 580 Luer & Escobar 1985 drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXXII Luer 2012 drawing fide; Orchids A Colombian Treasure Vol 3 Ortiz & Uribe 2019 photo fide;
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