Lepanthes orolojaensis Tobar & M.F.López 2021 SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Elongatae 1993
LCDP Photo/TYPE drawing by © Francisco Tobar and Phytokeys 180: 111–132 2021
Common Name The Oro-Loja Lepanthes [refers to its being on the border between the 2 provinces]
Flower Size .16" [4 mm]
Found in Ecuador on the border between El Oro and Loja provinces in patches of scrub forests at elevations around 3500 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cold growing epiphyte with arcuate to pendulous ramicauls enveloped entirely by light brown, minutely puberulent, lepanthiform sheaths with a minutely pubescent, acuminate ostium and carrying a single, apical, dark green suffused with purple, arcuate, coriaceous, elliptic, subacute to obtuse, tridentate apically, cuneate and contracted below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the spring on a racemose, one per stem, peduncle filiform, .04 to .12" [1 to 3 mm] long, provided at the base by a bract, longer than the leaf overall, .8 to 1.4" [2 to 3.5 cm] long, flexuous, widely spaced, successively single, 3 to 16 flowered inflorescence with sub-distichous, infundibuliform, longapiculate floral bracts
"This species is similar to Lepanthes jimburae Luer & Hirtz, but can be distinguished by the smaller plants that are less than 1.2" [3 cm] tall (vs. up to 1.6" [4 cm] tall); the shorter inflorescence that is less than 1.6" [4 cm] long (vs. inflorescence up to 4" [10 cm] long), the shorter dorsal sepal with a shorter sepaline tail (.24" vs .36" [6.0 mm vs. 9.0 mm] long), the apical lobe of the petals ovate and lower lobe triangular-oblong (vs. petals with subequal, obliquely triangular, acute lobes)." Tobar , Lopex, Gavilanes, Monteros, Garcia and Graham 2021
L corkyae and L schizix are alos similar.
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Phytokeys 180: 111–132 Three new endemic species of Lepanthes (Orchidaceae, Pleurothallidinae) from the highlands of Ecuador Tobar , Lopex, Gavilanes, Monteros, Garcia and Graham 2021 Drawing/photo fide
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