Lepanthes dondodii Luer 2003 SUBGENUS Lepanthes SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Lepanthes

TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer and Selbyana 24:14 Dod ex Luer 2003

LATER

Common Name Don Dod's Lepanthes [American missionary and self taught Botanist in Hispanola 1915 - 2011]

Flower Size .16" [4 mm]

Found in the Dominican Republic at elevations above 1000 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cool growing caespitose epiphyte with erect, slender ramicauls enveloped by minutely ciliate lepanthiform sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, ovate, acute to subacute, rounded to broadly cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the later spring on an erect, borne behind the leaf by a filiform peduncle .28 to .4" [7 to 1 cm] long, rachis .4" [1 cm] long, congested, distichous, successively single, many flowered inflorescence with slightly submuricate, shorter than the pedicel floral bracts.

"This species, identified previously as the Cu- ban Lepanthes melanocaulon, occurs in the Central Cordillera of the Dominican Republic. Only one collection from Hispaniola has been examined, and it has been found to differ significantly. Identities of about eight other collections have not been verified, but it is logical to assume that they are the same as the Hispaniolan collection examined. The two species are superficially similar, and without comparing details obtained from freshly pickled material, they could easily be confused. The habit of the two species is similar. The flowers of Lepanthes dondodii are slightly smaller. The dorsal sepal is suborbicular, not broadly triangular as in L. melanocaulon. The oblong petals are similar, but those of L. don- dodii are longer. The lips of both species are bilobed with hemispherical lobes. The sinus of L melanocaulon is protuberant with an entire appendix. The sinus of L dondodii is concave, not protuberant and has a distinctly bifid appendix." Luer 2003

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Selbyana 24: 13 Dod ex Luer 2003 drawing fide; Orchid Flora of the Greater Antilles Ackerman 2014

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