Lepanthes exigua Luer & L.Jost 2002 GENUS Lepanthes SUBGENUS Brachycladium SECTION Amplectentes Luer 1994
Photos by Tomas Bajza
TYPE Drawing by Luer
Common Name or Meaning The Very Small Lepanthes [refers to the plant size]
Flower Size .12" [3 mm]
Found in Morona-Santiago province of Ecuador in cloud forests at elevations around 1890 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cool growing, pendent-repent epiphyte with pendant, repent, slender rhizomes giving rise to prone ramicauls concealed by a long-ciliate lepanthiform sheath and carrying a single, apical, pendent, coriaceous, lentiform, minutely short-ciliate, broadly elliptical, obtuse, 3 veined, contracted below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the spring on an ascending, .04" [1mm] long, single flowered inflorescence with a long-ciliate, just shorter than the pedicel floral bract.
"The minutely ciliate leaves are .12" [3 mm] long or less, and the single flowered inflorescence is barely .04" [1 mm] long, but the rhizome and peduncle have long-ciliate sheaths. The sepals are obtuse, the laterals apiculate, the petals are oblique and single veined and the lobes of the cordate lip enclose the lip." Luer 2002
Synonyms Andinia exigua (Luer & L.Jost) Karremans & S.V.Uribe 2017; Brachycladium exiguum (Luer & L.Jost) Luer 2005; Neooreophilus exiguus (Luer & L.Jost) Archila 2009; Oreophilus exiguus (Luer & L.Jost) Archila 2009; Penducella exigua (Luer & L.Jost) Luer 2010
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXIV A First Century of New Species of Stelis of Ecuador Part 1 Luer 2002 Drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVII Dryadella and Acronia section Macrophyllae-Fasiculatae Luer 2005 as Brachycladium exigerum; Selbyana 29(2): 203 Archila 2009 as Oreophilus exigua; Orchid Digest 74(2): 69 Luer 2010 as Penducella exigua; Flora of Ecuador No 88 Lepanthes and affiliates Dodson & Luer 2011 as Penducella exigua drawing fide
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