Lepanthes excavata Dod ex Luer 2003 SUBGENUS Lepanthes SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Lepanthes

TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer and Selbyana 24:15 Dod ex Luer 2003

LATER

Common Name The Cavity Lepanthes [referring to the cavity of the body of the lip]

Flower Size .16" [4 mm]

Found in Haiti near Massif de la Hotte without elevational data as a mini-miniature sized, caespitose epiphyte with erect, slender ramicauls enveloped by 5 to 9, ciliate lepanthiform sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, broadly elliptic-ovate, obtuse, convex, purple beneath, rounded and abruptly contracted below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the later spring on an erect, borne behind the leaf by a filiform peduncle .2 to .4" [5 to 1 cm] long, rachis .6" [1.5 cm] long, congested, distichous, successively single, many flowered inflorescence with echinate, shorter than the pedicel floral bracts.

"This species is one of many species of Lepanthes discovered by Dod in the forests of the Massif de la Hotte in Haiti. The broadly expanded, bilobed lip without blades and the very short column are similar to those of Cuban Lepanthes melanocaulon. Le- panthes excavata is characterized by a medium- sized habit with broadly ovate, obtuse, convex leaves with a congested raceme borne beneath. The sepals are ovate and acute with the laterals connate below the middle. The petals are trans- versely lobed, with the lobes equal, obcuneate and truncate. The lip is bilobed without blades. The broadly semilunate lobes with very wide connectives form a wide and thick body. On the floor of the body behind the marginal appendix there is a deep, elongated cavity." 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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