Lepanthes caudatisepala C.Schweinf. 1942 SUBGENUS Lepanthes SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Lepanthes
Photos by © Patrick & Martine Cloes and their Pleurothallid Webpage
Common Name The Caudate Sepal Lepanthes
Flower Size .2" [5mm]
Found in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia in elfin cloud forests at elevations around 2450 to 2800 meters as a small sized, cold growing epiphyte with erect, stout ramicauls enveloped completely by 5 to 9, lepanthiform sheaths with dilated ostia and carrying a single, apical, elliptic to oblong-elliptic, rather abruptly long acuminate and minutely tridenticulate apically, 3 nerved, broadly cuneate below into the short, channeled petiolate base leaf that blooms in the winter and spring on 1 to 2, filiform, arcuate, shorter to equalling the leaf in length, to 4.4" [11 cm] long, successively single, few to many flowered, racemose inflorescence
Lepanthes profusa has been considered by many to be a synonym of L caudatisepala but Luer in 2012 states that there are enough differences to keep it as a separate species. L caudatisepala has flowers with smooth margined sepals and a lip with flat blades but on the other hand L profusa has denticulate margined sepals and a lip with the blades indented above the middle.
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Orchids of Peru Schweinfurth 1958 drawing; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XIV Systematics of Draconanthes, Lepanthes subgenus Marsipanthes and subgenus Lepanthes of Ecuador Luer 1996 drawing fide; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 2 Dodson 2001 as L profusa photo fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XIV Luer 1996 drawing; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 2 Dodson 2001 drawing ok; Flora of Ecuador No 88 Lepanthes and affiliates Dodson & Luer 2011 drawing fide; Flora of Ecuador No 88 Lepanthes and affiliates Dodson & Luer 2011 as L profusa drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXXII Luer 2012 Luer drawing fide; Orchids A Colombian Treasure Vol 3 Ortiz & Uribe 2019 drawing fide/photo good; Phytotaxa 422 (3) Zambrano 2019 drawing fide
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