Lepanthes ectopa Luer 2009 SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Mucronatae Luer 1996
Photo by © Esteben Dominguez Vargas
Drawing by © Carl Luer and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Webpage
Common Name The Strange Lepanthes [refers to the floral parts]
Flower Size .2" [5 mm]
Found in Valle De Cauca department of Colombia at elevations around 2200 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cold growing epiphyte with erect, very slender ramicauls enveloped by 9 to 10, minutely ciliate, lepanthiform sheaths with oblique ostia and carrying a single, apical, thinly coriaceous, erect, purple suffused beneath elliptical, acute, long-acuminate, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the fall on a, filiform, congested, distichous, .36" [9 mm] long, successively single, few flowered inflorescence arising on the back of the leaf.
"This little species, apparently endemic in the Western Cordillera of southern Colombia, is characterized by very slender ramicauls that bear long-acuminate leaves. A proportionately large flower is borne in a raceme shorter than the leaf. The dorsal sepal is deeply inflated while the smaller lateral sepals are semiconnate. The petals with long-attenuated lower lobes, and the lip with a large, protruding, triangular body are similar to those of Lepanthes skeleton." Luer 2009
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Selbyana 30: 9 Luer & Escobar 2009 Drawing fide; Orchids A Colombian Treasure Vol 3 Ortiz & Uribe 2019 photo fide;
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