Lepanthes matisii Thoerle & P Ortiz 2011 SUBGENUS Lepanthes SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Lepanthes
Photos by © Jay Pfahl
Photo by Arturo Carrilo
Common Name Matis' Lepanthes [Francisco Xavier Matís Mahecha, artist of Real Expedición Botánica del Nuevo Reino de Granada, 1783-1816, who first illustrated this species]
Flower Size 3/8" [1 cm]
Found in Cundinamarca department of Colombia at elevations of 2750 to 3000 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cold growing epiphyte with slender, erect ramicauls enveloped by 4 to 5, microscopically ciliate, lepanthiform sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, obtuse, narrowing below into the subpetiolate base leaf that blooms in the spring on a loose, erect, 1.32 to 1.6" [3.3 to 4 cm long] including the [ 2.5 to 3 cm] long peduncle, successively few-flowered inflorescence holding the successive, large for the plant size, flowers far above the leaf and has minutely cilate floral bracts.
This species grows in ravines and along stream beds in cloud forests on thin branches and smaller trunks of large bushes underneath old growth forests on embankments. I have been observing this species for many years at a beautiful area just outside Bogota'. For years I had asked the Colombian Orchidologists if they thought that it was different and what it may be. Their answer was always that it was a species that had been described years before but they could never remember what that name was. After showing it to Lisa Thoerle and Father Padre Ortiz in June of 2009 they investigated further and found that it had been illustrated correctly in 1803 by Matis and published by Mutis but erroneously given the name of Lepanthes costata by Schweinfurth in 1963, a species that has tailed sepals which this one does not. Lisa and Padre Ortiz then wrote up an new description with the name Lepanthes matisii, the name of the artist that drew it in 1803.
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
*Orchid Digest Vol 75-1 2011 drawing/photo fide;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXXII Luer 2012 drawing fide;
*Anales del Jardín Botánico de Madrid 71(1): e001 2014 drawing fide;
Orchids, A Colombian Treasure Vol 3 Ortiz & Uribe 2019 photo fide;
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