Lepanthes bilabiata Fawc. & Rendle 1905 SUBGENUS Lepanthes SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Lepanthes

Drawing by © Carl Luer and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Webpage

Common Name The Two Lipped Lepanthes

Flower Size .08" [2 mm]

Found in Jamaica at elevations of 600 to 1280 meters as a mini-miniature sized, warm to cool growing epiphyte with erect, slender ramicauls enveloped by 5 to 7, microscopically ciliate lepanthiform sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, subacute, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the fall and winter on a filiform, congested, distichous, .28 to .36" [7 to 9 mm] long including the .08 to .16" [2 to 4 mm] long, successively single, several flowered inflorescence arising on the back of the leaf.

Characterized by the very short, congested raceme, considerably shorter tha the small, elliptical leaf, The dorsal sepal is deeply concave while the acute lateral lobes are semi connate. The upper lobe of the petals is oblong while the lower lobe is bluntly triangular. The lip is transversely ovate-bilobed with the rounded lobes encircling the column. The apex is retuse without forming an appendix. The deep red-purple or purplish-black color of the dorsal sepal and upper lobes of the petals are in stark contrast to the yellowish white of the lower half of the flower that includes the lateral sepals, lower lobes of the petals and the lip." Ackerman 2014

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXX Luer 2009 drawing fide; Orchid Flora of the Greater Antilles Ackerman 2014

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