Lepanthes exotica Hespenh. & Dod 1990 SUBGENUS Lepanthes SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Lepanthes

TYPE Drawing by © Hespenheide and Moscosoa 6: 180 Hespenh. & Dod 1990

LATE EARLY

Common Name The Exotic Lepanthes [refers to the 2 strange forms of the petals, apically apiculate-caudate and shortly obtuse]

Flower Size .2" [5 mm]

Found in the Sierra de Neiba of the Dominican Republic in primary forest remnants at elevations of 1500 to 1550 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cool growing, caespitose epiphyte with a slender, erect ramicaul enveloped by 6 to 8, minutely ciliate lepanthiform sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, purple suffused beneath, elliptical-ovate, subacute to obtuse, broadly cuneate below into a petiolate base leaf that blooms in the late summer and early fall on an erect, held beneath the leaf, peduncle .2 to .28" [5 to 7 mm] long, rachis congested, distichous, to .4" [1 cm] long, successively single, many flowered inflorescence with slightly echinate, shorter than the pedicel floral bracts.

"Identified by its small to medium habit with a congested raceme borne beneath an ovate leaf, entire, acute sepals, rather large petals with the lobes triangular and oblique, slightly diverging, with a subacute angle on the margin between the lobes, a common finding in species of the Andes. The blades of the lip are elliptical and the appendix is elongate and ciliate." Ackerman 2014

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Moscosoa 6: 179 Hespenh. & Dod 1990 drawing fide; Orchid Flora of the Greater Antilles Ackerman 2014

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