Lepanthes kabebatae Bogarín, Karremans & Mel.Fernández 2012 SUBGENUS Lepanthes SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Lepanthes
Photos/TYPE Drawing by © Franco Pupulin and The Epidendra WebPage
LATE
THROUGH MID 
Common Name The Kabebata Lepanthes [A school in Cartago Costa Rica near where the orchid was discovered]
Flower Size .2" [5 mm]
Found in Cartago province of Costa Rica in primary forests and in very wet premontane forests at elevations around 1450 meters as a small sized, cool growing epiphyte with erect to suberect, stems enveloped completely by 8 to 11 minutely ciliate, blackish leapanthiform sheaths and carrying subcoriaceous, green above purple beneath, elliptic to narrowly ovate, acute to acuminate, with an apiculus, cuneate and narrowing below into tthe petiolate base leaf that blooms in the late spring through mid fall on racemose, distichous, arising beneath the leaf, shorter than the leaf, to 1.8" [4.5 cm] long, overall, peduncle to .8" [2 cm] long, rachis to 1" [2.5 cm] long, successively single, several flowered inflorescence with a ciliate, ovate, acuminate, conduplicate, membraneous, muriculate floral bract.
"Lepanthes kabebatae is one of the largest species of the genus in Costa Rica, with plant up to 8" [20 cm] tall. The flowers of L. kabebatae are similar to those of L. elegans, but the former can be recognized by the wider petals .224 to .32" [5.6 to 8] mm (vs. up to .2" [5 mm]) with the upper lobe oblong-ovate (vs. widely ovate) and the lower lobe narrowly ovate (vs. obliquely triangular), the microscopically ciliate lip (vs. long ciliate lip towards the apex) and the large appendix (vs. reduced to a tuft of cilia). The color of the flowers is also different; in L. kabebatae the petals are yellow, basally stained with scarlet (vs. yellow with a red stain in the middle of the upper lobe and along the external margins) and the lip is scarlet (vs. yellow). The size and habit of L. kabebatae are similar to those of L. atrata Endrés ex Luer, L. barbosae Luer, L. daniel-jimenezii Bogarín & Pupulin, L. ferrelliae Luer and L. guardiana Endrés ex Luer. However, the new species lacks the thick, protuberant body of the lip present in all those species." Bogarin, Karremans and Fernandez 2012
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; *LANKESTERIANA 12(1), Bogarín, Karremans & Mel.Fernández April 2012. © Universidad de Costa Rica, 2012. drawing/photos fide; Vanishing Beauty, Native Costa Rican Orchids Vol 2 Lacaena to Pteroglossa Pupulin 2020 photo fide;
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