Lepanthes auriculata Luer 1983 SUBGENUS Lepanthes SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Lepanthes
Photo by Ecuagenera and their Orchid Website
Photo by © Alexander Hirtz
Photo by Eric Hunt
TYPE drawing by © Carl Luer
Common Name The Eared Lepanthes
Flower Size 1/5" [5 mm]
Found in Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia at elevations of 1400 to 2600 meters as a miniature sized, cool to cold growing epiphyte often occuring near rivers with slender to stout, erect ramicauls enveloped basally by 10 to 16, minutely ciliate, lepanthiform sheaths carrying a single, apical, erect, thinly coriaceous, elliptical, acute, long acuminate leaf with minute cilia along the ventral veins and has a rounded base contracted into a petiole that blooms in the fall on a dense, successively many flowered, racemose, to 1/10" [2 mm] long inflorescence.
"Similar to L ballatrix and L cratica but L auriculata is distinguished by the concave, ear-like blades of the lip. The connectives and body are thick with the oblong, pubescent appendix in contact with the stigma" Luer 1996
There are 2 other species within Colombia that can be confused with this species, L orion which has much more obtuse sepals and an appendix that is pubescent and oblong and L steyermarkii which differs in a protuberant, shortly ciliate, obtuse sinus which is held beneath the stigma.
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Phytologia 54:330 Luer 1983; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XIV Systematics of Draconanthes, Lepanthes subgenus Marsipanthes and subgenus Lepanthes of Ecuador Luer 1996 drawing 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; Orchids A Colombian Treasure Vol 3 Ortiz & Uribe 2019 photo fide;
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