Lepanthes avicularia Luer & Hirtz 1987 SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Elongatae 1993
Photo by © Laurent Minet and his Flickr Orchid Photo Website
TYPE drawing by © Carl Luer
Common Name The Small Bird Lepanthes [refers to the winged petals and lobes of the lip]
Flower Size .2" [5 mm]
Found in Zamora-Chinchipe province of Ecuador in cloud forests on twigs and small branches of dwarf trees at elevations of 2600 to 3050 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cold growing epiphyte with a slender, erect ramicaul enveloped by 2 to 4, minutely ciliate lepanthiform sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, thickly coriaceous, elliptical to suborbicular, obtuse, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the summer on a filiform, loose, flexuous, to 1.4" [3.5 cm] long, successively single, several flowered inflorescence.
"The lateral sepals are fimbriate while the margins of the dorsal sepal are smooth. All three sepals are long-caudate. A minute apiculum is present on the outer margin of the petals. Most unusual is the connectives of the blades of the lip that area connate directly to the column without forming a body. The tiny, filiform appendix appears to emerge from the underside of the column, similar to that of L alticola." Luer 1996
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Lindleyana 2: 32 Luer & Hirtz 1987 drawing fide; 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
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