Lepanthes carunculigera Rchb.f. 1886 SUBGENUS Marsipanthes SECTION Felinae Luer 1986
Plant and Flower in situ Parque Nacional Tatama' Choco Colombia 8/17
Photos by © Jay Pfahl
TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer and The Epidendra Website
Common Name or Meaning The Caruncle Bearing Lepanthes [refers to the verrucose suface to the upper lobes of the petals]
Flower Size .4" [1 cm]
Found in Risaralda and Choco departments of Colombia at elevations around 2100 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cold growing epiphyte with slender, suberect to horizontal ramicauls enveloped by 6 to 8, minutely ciliate lepanthiform sheaths and carrying a single, apical, spreading to horizontal, coriaceous, purple suffused beneath, satiny green above, elliptical-ovate, subacute, broadly cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the spring and summer on a filiform, congested, .6 to .8" [1.5 to 2 cm] long, including the .48 to .72" [1.2 to 1.7 cm] long peduncle, successively few, many flowered inflorescence arising on top of the leaf.
"The plant is small with a proportionally large, gaping flower borne past the tip of the leaf with the peduncle lying on top. The most distinguishing feature is tha petals that are erect and thick with the upper lobe incised with a small, erect, lateral lobule. The greater part of the lobe is verrucose. The lip is hippocrepiform [horseshoe-shaped] with the basal lobes flanking the column. Luer 1996
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; AJC Ref 047-b Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XIV Systematics of Draconanthes, Lepanthes subgenus Marsipanthes and subgenus Lepanthes of Ecuador Luer 1996 drawing fide; Harvard Pap. Bot. 16(2): 329 Luer & Thoerle 2011 drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXXII Luer 2012 Luer drawing fide; The Orchid Review Vol 127 No 1328 December 2019 photo fide; Orchids A Colombian Treasure Vol 3 Ortiz & Uribe 2019 photo fide;
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