Lepanthes lunaris Luer 1994 GENUS Lepanthes SUBGENUS Brachycladium SECTION Amplectentes Luer 1994
Photo by Davy's Cloud Forest Jewels Face Book Page
TYPE Drawing by Carl Luer
Common Name or Meaning The Crescent Shaped Lepanthes [Refers to the lip shape surrounding the column
Flower Size .2" [5 mm]
Found in southwestern Colombia in cloud forests at elevations around 1900 to 2000 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cool to cold growing epiphyte with pendant, long repent, occasionally branching rhizomes giving rise to abbreviated ramicauls concealed by a long-spiculate lepanthiform sheath and carrying a single, apical, descending, coriaceous, glabrous, elliptical, subacute apically, 3 to 5 veined, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the winter through summer on a upcurved, slender, .08 to .15" [2 to 4mm] long, congested, successively 2 to 3 flowered inflorescence with glabrous floral bracts.
"The little, elliptical leaves are glabrous, but the sheaths of the rhizome and ramicauls are long-spiculate. The flowers are produced in short, ascending racemes. The broadly ovate, obtuse, microscopically pubescent sepals are deeply connate, forming a flat flower. The crescent-shaped petals are also microscopically pubescent. The lip is cordate-U-shaped with basal lobes encircling the column." Luer 1994
Synonyms Andinia lunaris (Luer) Karremans & S.V.Uribe 2017; Brachycladium lunare (Luer) Luer 2005; Oreophilus lunaris (Luer) Archila 2009; Penducella lunaris (Luer) Luer 2010
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Icones Pleurothallidinarum XI Systematics of Lepanthes Subgenus Brachycladium and Pleurothallis subgenus Aenigma, Elongatia and Kraenzlingella Luer 1994 drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVII Dryadella and Acronia section Macrophyllae-Fasiculatae Luer 2005 as Brachycladium lunaris; Selbyana 29(2): 203 Archila 2009 as Oreophilus lunaris; Orchid Digest Vol 74 #2 Luer 2010 as Penducella lunaris; Flora of Ecuador No 88 Lepanthes and affiliates Dodson & Luer 2011 as Penducella lunaris drawing fide;
Pleurothallids Neotropical Jewels Vol 1 Karremans & Viera 2020 as Andinia lunaris photo fide
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