Lepanthes candida Endres ex Luer 1995 SUBGENUS Lepanthes SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Lepanthes

Photo by Wiel Driessen and his Flicker Orchid Photo Website

TYPE Drawing TYPE Drawing by Carl Luer

Common Name The White Lepanthes [refers to the sepals color]

Flower Size 15" [3mm]

Found in Costa Rica and Panama in premontane rain forest to cloud forest and disturbed primary forests at elevations of 800 to 1800 as a mini-miniature sized, warm to cool growing epiphyte with erect, slender ramicauls enveloped completely by 4 to 5 lepanthiform sheaths and carrying a single apical, ovate, obtuse, abruptly narrowing below into the shortly petiolate base leaf that blooms in the spring on a very short, peduncle .12" to .4" [.3 to 1 cm] long, successively single few flowered inflorescence.

"Closest to L confusa but L candida is distinguished by the small habit with broadly elliptic leaves amd a shport distichous raceme that reaches to about the middle of the leaf. The whitish, subacute sepals, abot .12" [3 mm] long are entire. The microscopically pubescent petals afre proportionally large, considerablt more so in some specimens. The lobes are more or less triangular and obtuse to narrowly obtuse. The blades of the lip are elliptical or ovate and microscopically pubescent and rorne to either side of the column by short, broadly cuneate connectives. The body is thick witha short, thick oblong, long pubescent appendix which extends forward beneath the stigm, remains constant through all collections.

CAUTION!! The TYPE Drawing above by Carl Luer is absolutely correct, the photos is what people believe in Costa Rica is the real L candida which may be a variable shaped flower. The TYPE Drawing is absolutely correct.

Synonyms .

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Lankester's Epidendra Website CR CHECKED Type OK; * Lindleyana 10: 138 Luer 1995 drawing fide; Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica Vol 3 Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003; Vanishing Beauty; Native Costa Rican Orchids Vol 2 Lacaena to Pteroglossa Pupulin 2020 photo fide;

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