Lepanthes conconula Luer & Hirtz 2009 SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Elongatae 1993

TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer and Selbyana 30: 6 Luer & Escobar 2009

LATE EARLY

Common Name The Coccoon Lepanthes [refers to the column within the lip like a hotdog within a bun]

Flower Size .2" [5 mm]

Found in Zamora-Chinchipe province of Ecuador at elevations around 2500 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cold growing caespitose epiphyte with stout, erect ramicauls enveloped by 8 to 9, long ciliate lepanthiform sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, broadly elliptical, disinctly margined, the apex obtuse, minutely retuse, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the late summer and early fall on an erect, peduncle filiform, to .8" [2 cm] long, rachis to 1.4" [3.5 cm] long or more, loose, successively single, few flowered inflorescence with echinate, shorter than the pedicel floral bracts.

"This weird species, closely allied to the widely distributed, relatively frequent Lepanthes ictalurus, occurs within its range in southeastern Ecuador. It is distinguished by stout ramicauls with close, dilated, long-ciliate sheaths, and an elongating, loosely flowered raceme. The sepals are not as deeply concave as those of L. ictalurus, the lateral sepals being completely connate. The petals with long-attenuate lower lobes are similar in both species. Instead of similarly long-attenuate blades of the lip, the apices of the blades of the lip of L. conconula are merely rounded. The blades form the lateral margins of a broad body, so that when the blades are erect they surround the column like a hot dog in a bun." Luer & Hirtz 2009

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Selbyana 30: 6 Luer & Escobar 2009 Drawing fide;

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