Lepanthes calopetala Salazar & Soto Arenas 1996 SUBGENUS Lepanthes SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Lepanthes
TYPE Photo by © Gerardo Salazar
Photo by © I. Aguirre
Another Angle Photos by © Noble Bashor
TYPE Drawing by © G A Salazar and El Genero Lepanthes Sw. En Mexico Salazar & Soto 1996
Common Name The Beautiful Petaled Lepanthes
Flower Size .2" [5mm] tall
Found in Vera Cruz and Oaxaca states of Mexico at elevations around 2000 to 2550 meters in deep woods as a mini-miniature sized, cold growing epiphyte with erect ramicauls enveloped by 3 to 6, ciliate, lepanthiform sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, lanceolate, attenuate, flat, coriaceous, slightly fleshy, tridentate apically, dark green, often purple beneath, the base is cuneate and contracted into the sulcate petiolate base leaf that blooms in the summer and fall on a single, .1" to .3" [2 to 7.5 mm] long, on the back of the leaf, successively single, to 15 flowered inflorescence with a tubular-infundibular, glabrous, obtuse, yellowish, transparent scarious bract and distichous, somewhat imbricate, cuculate-infundibular, broadly ovate, obtuse-mucronate, glabrous floral bracts
The first 2 photos above are the type photos so they are absolutely correct.
"Distinguished by the lanceolate leaf, the shorter than the inflorescence, the closely spaced floral bracts, the apiculate 'Boomerang" shaped petals, the laminae of the lip ovate, acute, divergent, the column as long as the laminae of the lip, and the laminar, cospicuously recurved, densely short pilose appendix. The lateral sepals have papilose margins Lepanthes calopetala is similar to L. chiangii, but differs in the linear-elliptic leaf, the small flowers and the distinctly different petals. Also similar to L. zapotensis but is distinguished by the much smaller plants with narrower leaves and various floral details." Salazar & Soto 1996
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * El Genero Lepanthes Sw. En Mexico Salazar & Soto 1996 drawing/photo fide
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