Lepanthes gabriellae Salazar & Soto Arenas 1996 SUBGENUS Lepanthes SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Lepanthes

TYPE Drawing

Photo/TYPE Drawing by © Gerardo Salazar and El Genero Lepanthes Sw. En Mexico Salazar and Soto 1996

LATE THROUGH

Common Name Gabriella’s Lepanthes [Mexican orchid enthusiast current]

Flower Size .12” [3 mm]

Found only in Oaxaca state of Mexico on thin branches of small trees within montane perrenial forests at elevations around 2000 meters as mini-miniature sized, cool to cold growing epiphyte with ascending to erect ramicauls enveloped by 3 to 6 lepanthiform sheaths and carrying a single, apical, coriaceous, not rigid, somewhat fleshy, narrowly elliptic, acute, more or less flat, intense green above, green to flushed with purple beneath, apically tridentate, petiolate base leaf that blooms in the late spring through fall on 1 to 2, only one per bloom season, as long or slightly longer than the leaf in length, mostly on the back side of the leaf, peduncle .24 to 3.6” [6 to 9 mm] long, single tubular-infundibular bracted, rachis slightly flexuous, .56” [1.4 cm] long overall, successively 1 at a time, 3 to 5 flowered inflorescence with distichous, obliquely infundibular, acute-apiculate, lepanthiform floral bracts.

"This species is easily recogized by the long-ciliate sepals, petals with the lobes of the petals similar, the glabrous lip blades parallel and enveloping most of the column and the laminar, rectangular, very developed, shortly hairy appendix with a tuft of long, stiff hairs on the lower back. L oreophila has ciliated sepals but the cilia are comparatively short and markedly more numerous, the lobes are the petals are different, the upper much greater than the lower and superposed and homologous in the other petals and the blades of the lip are much smaller and papillose. L erythroxanthasometimes has ciliate sepals but can be immediately separated by the lobes of the very dissimilar petals, the lip laminae densely papillose and the triangular appendage, in addition to the muricate lepanthiform sheaths. L schultesii is separated by the much shorter and broader leaves, The inflorescence obviously longer than the leaf, the narrower petals, shorter cilia on the sepals and s smaller appendix with shorter hairs." Salazar & Soto 1996.

The photo above is the type photo so it is absolutely correct.

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * El Genero Lepanthes Sw. En Mexico Salazar and Soto 1996 Photo/drawing fide;

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