Lepanthes hirtzii Luer 1983 SUBGENUS Lepanthes SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Lepanthes
Photo by © Ron and his Orchids in Bloom Blogspot
Photo by © Jay Pfahl
Photo by Ecuagenera and their Ecuador Orchid Website
TYPE drawing by © Carl Luer
Common Name or Meaning Hirtz' Lepanthes [Ecuadorian Orchid Enthusiast current]
Flower Size .4" [1 cm]
Found in southern Colombia to northern Ecuador in cloud forests at elevations of 2400 to 3100 meters as a small sized, cold growing epiphyte with erect, slender to stout ramicauls enveloped by 8 to 15 close, glabrous to minutely scabrous lepanthiform sheaths and carrying a single, apical, thinly coriaceous, erect, elliptical, long acuminate, the base broadly cuneate into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the fall, winter and spring on a subdensely, 3.2 to 6" [8 to 15 cm] long, successively 2 to 3, several flowered inflorescence.
"Recognized by the large habit, a subdense raceme of large red, orange to purple flowers that equals or surpasses the leaf in length. The sepals are deeply connate into a cup, the petals are very small and the lip is not remarkable except for the tiny two-eared appendix." Luer 1996
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Phytologia 54:345 1983, Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XIV Systematics of Draconanthes, Lepanthes subgenus Marsipanthes and subgenus Lepanthes of Ecuador Luer 1996 drawing fide; Orchid Digest Vol 62 #2 1998 photo fide; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 2 2001 photo fide; Flora of Ecuador No 88 Lepanthes and affiliates Dodson & Luer 2011 drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXXII Luer 2012 drawing fide; Orchids A Colombian Treasure Vol 3 Ortiz & Uribe 2019 drawing/photo fide;
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