Lepanthes morae Zuluaga, J.S.Moreno, Gal.-Tar 2022 SUBGENUS Lepanthes SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Lepanthes
Photo by © R.G. Tarazona/TYPE Drawing By J S Moreno Four new species of Lepanthes (Pleurothallidinae) from the southwestern Andes in Colombia
Common Name or Meaning Mora's Lepanthes [honors Danny Leandro Mora, who has been exploring the flora and fauna of the forests around his hometown San José del Salado, for several years, leading us to discover several new species]
Flower Size .08" [2 mm] wide
Found in Valle de Cauca department of Colombia in humid secondary forests at elevations around 1700 meters as a mini-miniature to miniature sized, caespitose epiphyte with erect ramicauls enveloped by 6 to 14, acuminate, furrowed lepanthiform sheaths and carrying a single, apical, coriaceous, erect, elliptical-lanceolate, attenuate, emarginate apically with an abaxial apiculum in the middle, obtuse and cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the winter on a dense, congested, distichous, long-pedicellate, peduncle, held appressed to the abaxial surface of the leaf by a filiform, terete, .4" to .84" [1 to 2.1 cm] long, peduncle borne near the apex of the ramicaul, rachis .28 to .52" [.7 to 1.3 cm] long, successively single, 30 to 56 flowered, inflorescence with conical, acuminate, muricate, shorter than the pedicel floral bracts.
"Lepanthes morae vegetatively is similar to other species from Colombia with very congested racemes that are born on the abaxial surface of an elliptical and acuminate leaf, such as L. cogolloi Luer & R.Escobar, L. declivis, L. perdita Luer & Hirtz, and L. setifera Luer & R.Escobar. However, the most similar species is L. declivis , a species that can be identified by its ovate and slightly convex leaves (vs. ellipticallanceolate), and long pedicels .08 to .1" [2 to 2.5 mm] long, and ovaries .15" [4 mm] long, respectively (vs. pedicel .68 to .752" [1.52 to 1.88 mm] and ovary .92 to 1.24" [2.03 to 3.10 mm] long). Finally, the most distinctive feature of L. morae is the lip with the bases of the elliptical blades, abruptly reflexed with the apices narrowed and recurved beneath the column and the connectives narrow with an oblong and ciliate appendix (vs. blades of the lip narrowly-oblong with the apices spathulate and rounded, overlapping beneath the apex of the column, thick and concave; the broad connectives cuneate, shortly depressed laterally with a thick callus at the base of each connective in the outer side with no appendix). The most striking features that separates Lepanthes morae from other similar species is the presence of a small callus at the base of the outer face of the connectives, and the spathulate and rounded apices of the lip blades that overlap beneath the apex of the column, and the absence of an appendix" J.S.Moreno, Gal.-Tar. & Zuluaga 2022
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Four new species of Lepanthes (Pleurothallidinae) from the southwestern Andes in Colombia Drawing/photo fide;
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