Lepanthes elegans Luer 1995 SUBGENUS Lepanthes SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Lepanthes
Photo by Bruno Larsen and his Flickr Orchid Photo Website
Photos courtesy of Franco Pupulin.©
Photo courtesy of Daniel Jimenez ©
TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer and The American Orchid Society Lindleyana 10 147 Website
Common Name The Elegant Lepanthes
Flower Size .15" [3 mm]
Found in Costa Rica and Panama in primary forests at elevations around 1600 to 1700 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cool growing epiphyte with erect, slender ramicauls enveloped completely by 4 to 6 lepanthiform sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptic, tridenticulate apically, abruptly narrowing into the cuneate base leaf leaf that blooms in the winter on a single successively single few flowered inflorescence
Similar to L guardiana, L daniel-jimenezii and L ferreliae but differs from L guardiana by the red and yellow upper lobe of the petals and hairless margined sepals, from L ferreliae by the the wider sepals and the upper lobe of the petals are almost circular, and lastly from L daniel-jimenezii by the longer and protruding far from the appendix column.
" Lepanthes sanjuanensis is similar to L. elegans Luer. Both are characterized by the relatively large plants up to 12" [30 cm] tall, the flowers are small compared to the plant habit, produced below the leaf, and the lip is minute with conspicuous long-ciliate apexes. However, L. sanjuanensis is mainly distinguished by the green-purple, not reticulated leaves (vs. reticulated), the petals with the upper lobe oblong, rounded, with the margins red (vs. obliquely ovate, with a red blotch at the middle of the upper lobe), the lower lobe oblong, rounded, divergent at apex (vs. obliquely triangular, acute, converging) and the pinkish or orange-red lip (vs. yellow)." Luer 2012
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Lankester's Epidendra Website CR CHECKED Type OK; * Lindleyana 10: 146 Luer 1995 drawing fide; Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica Vol 3 Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003; Lankesteriana 12(2): 108 Bogarin, Pupulin & Karremans 2012; Vanishing Beauty; Native Costa Rican Orchids Vol 2 Lacaena to Pteroglossa Pupulin 2020 photo fide;
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