Lepanthopsis astrophora (Rchb. f. ex Kraenzl.) Garay 1962 SUBGENUS Lepanthopsis SECTION Fractipectin Luer 1991
Photo by © Pieter C. Brouwer and his Nature Photo Website
Photo courtesy of Eric Hunt, plant grown by White Oak Orchids
TYPE Drawing by Carl Luer ©
Common Name The Star-Bearing Inflorescence Lepanthopsis
Flower Size .16" [4 mm]
Found on coastal Venezuela and Colombia at elevations of 700 to 1500 meters as a miniature sized, hot to cool growing, caespitose, epiphytic species with erect, slender ramicauls enveloped by 4 to 6, minutely ciliate, lepanthiform sheaths carrying a single apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, subacute leaf with the base cuneate to into the petiole that blooms in the spring, summer and fall on a terminal, erect, 4 4.8" [12 cm] long, more or less successive, loose, flexuous, many flowered, racemose inflorescence arising from the apex of the ramicaul with up to 6 flowers that open simultaneously and are held well above the leaves.
"Varied in size vegetatively, the flowers, small but brilliant violet, are resupinate and are produces several at a time on a loose, flexuous raceme. The sepals are ovate and acuminate , the petals are ovate and microscopically ciliate and the lip is cordate." Luer 1991
Synonyms *Pleurothallis astrophora Rchb. f. ex Kraenzl. 1892
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Xenia Orchidaceae Vol 3 Reichenbach 1892 as Pleurothallis astrophora drawing fide; Die Orchideen Schlechter 1915 as Pleurothallis asterophora sic; * Studies in American orchids VI Canadian Journal of Botany 34(2):241-260 Garay 1962; Venezuelan Orchids Vol 3 Dunsterville & Garay 1965 drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 36 # 9 1967; Flora de Venezuela Foldats Volumen XV Part 2 1970 drawing fide; Orchids of Venezuela, An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 2 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum VIII Systematics of Lepanthospsis, Octomeria subgenus Pleurothallopsis, Restrepiella, Salpistele and Teagueia Luer 1991 drawing/photo fide; Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 2 Ramiro and Carnevali 2000 drawing fide; Rudolf Schlechter Die Orchideen Band 1C lieferung 42 - 43 pg 2626 - 2762 Brieger 2001; Mille et Une Mini Orchideees Roguenant 2009 photo ok; Orchids, A Colombian Treasure Vol 3 Ortiz & Uribe 2019;
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