Lepanthes monoptera Lindl.1834 SUBGENUS Lepanthes SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Breves Luer 1986 SERIES Breves Luer 1996
Drawing by © S Manning and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Webpage
Photos by © Jay Pfahl
Photo by © Andres Posada and his Flickr Orchid Photo Website
Drawing by © Carl Luer and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Photo Website
Drawing by © Dunserville and Garay and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Photo Website
Common Name The Single-Winged Lepanthes [refers to an ovarian carina which was prominent on the dorsum of the ovary of Lindley's only flower to examine for his determination]
Flower Size .1" [3mm]
Found in Colombia and Ecuador in montane forests at elevations of 2500 to 3400 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cold growing epiphyte or terrestrial with erect, slender to stout ramicauls enveloped by 7 to 11, lightly colored, microscopically scabrous, leapanthiform sheaths with slightly dilated ostia and carrying a single, erect, coriaceous, often suffused purple beneath, narrowly elliptical, gradually cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the spring on a subcongested, .4 to 3.6" [1 to 9 cm] long, successively single, several to many flowered, racemose inflorescence arising behind the leaf and carrying color variable flowers
Close to L macdougalii but L monoptera differs in the denticulate sepals, petals usually with triangular lobes and a lip connate to the base of the column
Similar to L sybax but it is distinguished by the entire sepals, oblong, nmearly equal lobes of the petals and a small triangular appendix.
CAUTION All of the photos above could be L monoptera but as you can see there is a lot of variability in the petals, lip and column. None of them are exact matches for Luer's drawings and even Luer states that the species is not well defined.
Synonyms Lepanthes dolichopus Schltr.1920; Lepanthes roseola Rchb.f. 1876
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Bonplandia Rchb.f 1855; Die Orchideen der Sudamerikanischen Kordillerenstaaten II Colombia Schlechter 1920 as L dolichopus; Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated Vol 6 Dunsterville & Garay 1966 drawing not = L ophiostele; Orchids of Venezuela, An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 2 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 drawing not = L ophiostele; Native Colombian Orchids Vol 5 COS 1994 photo fide to the 2nd & Third photos; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XIV Systematics of Draconanthes, Lepanthes subgenus Marsipanthes and subgenus Lepanthes of Ecuador Luer 1996 drawing ok see above; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XV Systematics of Trichosalpinx Luer 1997; Orchids of Bolivia Vasquez & Ibisch 2000 drawing ok see above; Orchid Species of Peru Zelenko Bermudez 2009 photo exact match to Luer's drawing and to the 1st photo; Flora of Ecuador No 88 Lepanthes and affiliates Dodson & Luer 2011 drawing fide; Orchids, A Colombian Treasure Vol 3 Ortiz & Uribe 2019 drawing/photo good;
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