Lepanthes holoserica Luer & B.T.Larsen 2013 SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Mucronatae Luer 1996

TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer

Common Name or Meaning The Silky Lepanthes [refers to the texture of the sepals and petals]

Flower Size .12" [3 mm]

Found in Venezuela without locational data as a mini-miniature sized, caespitose epiphyte with slender, erect ramicauls enveloped by 5 to 6, minutely ciliate lepanthiform sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, obtuse, rounded and contracted below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the fall on 2, simultaneous erect, arising on top of the leaf, from near the apex of the ramicaul, peduncle .28 to .8" [.7 to 2 cm] long, rachis .48 to 1" [1.2 to 2.5 cm] long, congested, successively single, several flowered inflorescence with shorter than the ovary floral bracts and carrying flowers with pale yellow, glabrous sepals, dark orange with pale margins, microscopically pubescent petals and a red-purple lip.

"This species is the second from Venezuela known with a narrow marginal process between the lobes of the petals, the first being Lepanthes uncinata Luer & B.T.Larsen. Lepanthes holoserica is recognized by one or two racemes of unequal length borne on the dorsum of a narrowly ovate leaf; broad, entire, glabrous sepals, a minute, marginal, filimentous process between the lobes of the petals; rounded ends of oblong blades of the lip; and a minute digitiform process terminating in a subovoid appendix. This species is related to Lepanthes mucronata Lindl., but is distinguished by a minute, filiform, marginal process of the petals: oblong blades of the lip with rounded ends; and a thick, ovoid appendix with a minute, oblong extension." Luer 2013

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; *Harvard Papers in Botany, Vol. 18, No. 2, pp. 173 to 196 2013 MISCELLANEOUS NEW SPECIES IN THE PLEUROTHALLIDINAE (ORCHIDACEAE) Carlyle A. Luer & Lisa Thoerle drawing fide;

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------