Lepanthes columbar Luer 1983 SUBGENUS Lepanthes SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Bilabiatae
Photos by © Milan Vágner
THROUGH 
Common Name The Pillory-Like Lip Lepanthes [refers to the collar-like lip]
Flower Size 1/16"
Found in central Ecuador on both sides of the Andes in cloud forests at elevations of 1350 to 3000 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cool to cold growing epiphyte with erect, slender ramicauls enveloped by 6 to 8, microscopically scabrous, lepanthiform sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, thickly coriaceous, narrowly linear-ovate, acute, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the mid spring through fall on the back of the leaf with a capillary, 1/2" [1.25 cm] long, successively single, few flowered inflorescence.
This species is related to L bifalcis but differs in the larger cordate lip and also similar to L homotaxis but differs by the larger, non-forked petals and a larger cordate lip exceeding the column.
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Phytologia 54:334 Luer 1983; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XIV. The genus Lepanthes subgenus Lepanthes in Ecuador Luer 1996 drawing fide; Flora of Ecuador No 88 Lepanthes and affiliates Dodson & Luer 2011 drawing fide
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
