Lepanthes antiopa Luer 1983 SUBGENUS Lepanthes SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Lepanthes
Photos by © Kevin Holcomb
TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website
Common Name The Mourning Cloak Lepanthes [refers to Nymphalis antiopa a butterfly with purple rings bordered by yellow]
Flower Size armine> .2" [5 mm]
Found in Cotopaxi province of Ecuador at elevations around 1200 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cool growing epiphyte with a slender, erect ramicaul enveloped by 10 to 12, ciliate, lepanthiform sheaths with widely dilated ostia and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, ovate, acuminate to acute, reticulate and ciliate along the veins beneath, broadly cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the summer on a filiform, erect, congested, .38" [9.5 mm] long, successively several flowered inflorescence arising on the back of the leaf.
"In spite of the fact that the colors of the flowers of Lepanthes are extremely variable, the sepals of this particular plant are purple with broad, yellow margins, reminiscent of the color pattern of the Mourning Cloak/Nymphalis antiopa. Otherwise, the species may be identified by the short racemes of flowers with acuminate sepals, obtuse petals and lip, and a vestigial appendix." Luer 1983
Characterized by the congested inflorescence borne behind miniutely ciliate and reticulate leaves, somewhat similar to L pubescens. The acuminate shortly tailed sepals ae dark purple with entire yellow margins. The petals and lip are glabrous and the appendix is reduced to a minute, concave lobule." Luer 1996
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; *Phytologia 54: 329 Luer 1983; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XIV Systematics of Draconanthes, Lepanthes subgenus Marsipanthes and subgenus Lepanthes of Ecuador Luer 1996 drawing fide; Flora of Ecuador No 88 Lepanthes and affiliates Dodson & Luer 2011 drawing fide
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
