Lepanthes lophius Luer 1983 SUBGENUS Lepanthes SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Lepanthes
Photo by © Ecuagenera Orchid Photo Webpage
TYPE drawing by © Carl Luer
Common Name The Lophius Lepanthes [A genus of fish [Anglerfish] that have appendages that appear as worms thus luring fish close enough so they can be eaten - similar to this species appendix in shape]
Flower Size .20" [5mm]
Found in southeastern Ecuador in cloud forests at elevations around 2650 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cold growing epiphyte with erect, slender ramicauls enveloped by 10 to 14 cilate, lepanthiform sheaths with markedly dilated ostia and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, purple beneath, narrowly ovate, acute, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the spring and fall on a filiform, congested, flexuous, 1.6" [4.5 cm] long, successively flowered inflorescence arising on the back of the leaf.
"Identified by the relatively large, purple and yellow flowers with attenuated, minutely serrulate sepals, borne in a flexuous raceme shorter than the leaf. The transverse petals are truncate, the blades of the lip are ovate and ciliate and the appendix is spathulate." Luer 1996
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Phytologia 54:351 1983; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XIV Systematics of Draconanthes, Lepanthes subgenus Marsipanthes and subgenus Lepanthes of Ecuador Luer 1996 drawing fide; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 2 Dodson 2001 photo fide; Flora of Ecuador No 88 Lepanthes and affiliates Dodson & Luer 2011 drawing fide
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