Lepanthes cardenasii J.S.Moreno, Gal.-Tar. & Zuluaga 2022 SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Mucronatae Luer 1996
Photo by © R.G. Tarazona/TYPE Drawing Four new species of Lepanthes (Pleurothallidinae) from the southwestern Andes in Colombia
Common Name or Meaning Cardenas' Lepanthes [s honors Dairon Cárdenas López (1957–2022), one of the most prolific Colombian botanists and plant collectors who worked at Instituto Amazónico de Investigaciones Científicas – SINCHI. D]
Flower Size .12" [3 mm] wide
Found in Valle de Cauca department of Colombia on isolated trees in cattle fields, close to a very well-preserved forest at elevations around 1700 meters as a mni-miniature sized, cool growing epiphyte with suberect, weak, slender, horizontal ramicauls enveloped by 6 to 10 close, microscopically ciliate-scabrous, long-acuminate lepanthiform sheaths with narrowly dilated, acuminate ostia and carrying a single, thinly coriaceous, brown edged, elliptic, long acuminate, emarginate apically with an abaxial apiculum in the middle, obtuse and contracted below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the summer on a congested, distichous, held appressed to the adaxial surface of the leaf, filiform, terete , 1.36 to 3.12" [3.4 to 7.8 cm] long peduncle, rachis .68" [1.6 cm] long, successively single to 2, 7 to 11 flowered inflorescence raceme borne near the apex of the ramicaul, with conical, acuminate, shorter than the pedicel floral bracts
"Lepanthes cardenasii is related to a group of species morphologically similar to L. mucronata Lindl., with a weak habit, ovate and acuminate leaves, small flowers born on top of the leaf, proportionally large petals compared with the size of the sepals, and a lip with thin, well-developed blades and sometimes concave appendices (Luer & Thoerle 2012). The most similar species is L. praemorsa , an endemic species from Colombia, but the new species is easily distinguished by its suborbicular and small sepals (vs. ovate and larger), the petals praemorse but with a pronounced and acuminate inner corner and almost as wide as the length of the sepals (vs. praemorse petals with an absent inner corner, as wide as the length of the dorsal sepal); the lip bilaminate, with the blades wide and lunate (vs. the blades thin and oblong), with a reduced ovate and bifid appendix (vs. appendix thick and broadly triangular)." J.S.Moreno, Gal.-Tar. & Zuluaga 2022
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Four new species of Lepanthes (Pleurothallidinae) from the southwestern Andes in Colombia Drawing/photo fide;
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