Lepanthes ophiostele Luer 1986 SUBGENUS Lepanthes SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Lepanthes
Photos by © Peter Bryder1986
Drawing by © Dunsterville and Garay
Common Name The Snake-Like Column Lepanthes
Flower Size .12" [3 mm]
Found in north western Venezuela in cloud forests at elevations around 2600 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cold growing epiphyte with erect, thin ramicauls enveloped by 4 to 6, lepanthiform sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, narrowly elliptic, acute, gradually narrowing below into the shortly petiolate base leaf that blooms in the fall on a 1.5" [3.75 cm] long, successively single, several flowered inflorescence holding the flowers towards the apex of the leaf to just beyond the leaf.
"This species was identified in Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated as the Colombian and Ecuadorian L. monoptera . Lepanthes monoptera was described from a collection by Jameson near Cuenca in southern Ecuador, and it is found commonly in southern and central Ecuador. The habit, raceme, and all floral parts easily separate the two species. Lepanthes ophiostele is recognized by the slender, subdense, many-flowered raceme that approaches the leaf in length, and the slender, elongated column to which the lip is connate above the middle." Luer 1986
CAUTION This photo does not conform well to the drawings from Venezuela so use with caution.
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated Vol 6 Dunsterville & Garay 1966 as L monoptera drawing hmm; Orchids of Venezuela An Illustrated Field Guide VOl 2 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 as L monoptera drawing fide; * Phytologia 59: 448 Luer 1986; drawing fide; Orchids of Venezuela An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 2 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 as L monoptera drawing hmm; Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 1 Ramiro and Carnevali 2000 drawing hmm
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