Lepanthes caprimulgus Luer 1976 SUBGENUS Marsipanthes SECTION Marisipanthes

Another Flower

Photos by © Milan Vágner

Plant and Flowers

Photo by © Jay Pfahl

TYPE Drawing

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

EARLY

Common Name The Caprimulgus Lepanthes [genus of whip-poor-will refers to the fanciful similarity to the flower and the bird.]

Flower Size 1/5" [.5 cm]

Found in Ecuador and central Peru in the lower levels of cool, cloud forests at elevations of 1600 to 2330 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cool to cold growing, caespitose epiphyte with ramicauls that are enclosed by lepanthiform sheaths and a single apical, broadly elliptic, bidentate apex, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in nature in the early fall till winter on a filiform, 2.4" [6 cm] long, single, successively flowered inflorescence with the peanut shaped flowers arising from each node starting at the base up and held above the leaf.

"Lepanthes caprimulgasis is rare and endemic in a forest in northeastern Peru where it was found by Janet Kuhn. All plants presently in cultivation descend from the original collection. Although vegetatively it does not seem distinct from numerous other species of the genus, the large, pendent, saccate, purple-striped flower is easily recognized. The dorsal sepal is connate two-thirds its length to the lateral sepals to permit an opening on the side of the convex apex with the acute, deflexed apices of the lateral sepals below the aperture. Deep within the tube the minute, seemingly inconsequential petals and lip surround the base of the much larger column." Luer 1996

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Selbyana Vol 3 12 Luer 1976 Drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 52 No 12 1983 photo fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XIV Systematics of Draconanthes, Lepanthes subgenus Marsipanthes and subgenus Lepanthes of Ecuador Luer 1996 drawing fide; Icones Orchidacearum Peruviarum Plate 483 Bennett & Christenson 1998 fide; Australian Orchid Review Vol 69 No 5 2004 photo; Orchid Species of Peru Zelenko Bermudez 2009 photo fide; Orchid Digest Vol 78 #4 2014 photo fide; Orchid Digest Vol 80 #3 2016 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 85 #1 2016 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 86 #3 2017 photo fide; Orchid Digest Vol 83 #3 2019 photo fide;

checked and sure

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