Lepanthes maccolmiana Luer 1997 SUBGENUS Lepanthes SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Lepanthes

TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website

Common Name MacColm's Lepanthes [American Botanist in Ecuador creator and administrator of Bisla Biolgical Station current]

Flower Size .12" [3 mm]

Found in Esmeraldas province of Ecuador at elevations around 400 to 600 meters as a mini-miniature sized, hot to warm growing epiphyte with a slender, erect ramicaul enveloped by 6 to 8 dark, microscopically ciliate lepanthiform sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, transversely ovate, obtuse, transverse to subcordate and abruptly contracted below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the fall on a filiform, very congested, distichous, .8" [2 cm] long, successively several flowered inflorescence arising on the back of the leaf and carrying slightly echinate floral bracts.

"In habit this species resembles L tracheia with the transversely ovate leaves broadly subcordate at the base. The flowers however are very similar to those of L larvina from Colombia. The sepals are obtuse and very shortly acuminate. In both species the petals are large with the tips of the elongate upper lobes deflexed in the natural position. The connectives of the blades of the lip are broad and above the middle and the appendix is protuberant. The connectives of L larvina are slender near the middle and the appendix lies agaainst the outer surface of the body." Luer 1996

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XIV Systematics of Draconanthes, Lepanthes subgenus Marsipanthes and subgenus Lepanthes of Ecuador Luer 1996 drawing fide; *Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XV Systematics of Trichosalpinx Luer 1997; Flora of Ecuador No 88 Lepanthes and affiliates Dodson & Luer 2011 drawing fide

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