Lepanthes caudata Luer & R.Escobar, Amer. 1984 SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Elongatae 1993
TYPE Photo by Rodrigo Escobar/TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website
Photo by © Bruno Larsen and his Flickr Orchid Photo Website
LATER 
EARLY
Common Name The Tailed Lepanthes [refers to the sepals]
Flower Size .2" [5 mm]
Found in southern Colombia and northern Ecuador in scrubby cloud forests at elevations of 2750 to 3050 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cold growing epiphyte with a slender, erect ramicaul enveloped by 3 to 5, minutely ciliate, lepanthiform sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, obtuse, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the later summer and early fall on a filiform, loose, flexible, flexuous, to 4.4" [11 cm] long, successively single to 2, several flowered inflorescence.
"Characterized byt he loose racemes much longer than the tiny leaves. The size of the denticulate sepals is varible, those of some flowers being twice the dimensions of those of others. The petals and lips however are constant." Luer 1996
Similar to , L floresii, L jimburae, L paradoxa, L synema, and L vermicularis.
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * AOS Bulletin Vol 53 No 3 260 1984 drawing/photo fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XIV Systematics of Draconanthes, Lepanthes subgenus Marsipanthes and subgenus Lepanthes of Ecuador Luer 1996 drawing fide; Flora of Ecuador No 88 Lepanthes and affiliates Dodson & Luer 2011 drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXXII Luer 2012 Luer drawing fide; Orchids A Colombian Treasure Vol 3 Ortiz & Uribe 2019 photo fide;
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
