Lepanthes otara Luer 1983 SUBGENUS Lepanthes SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Breves Luer 1986 SERIES Breves Luer 1996
Photo by © Sebastian Vieira-Uribe
Photo by © Irwing S. Saldana and his Flick Orchid Photo Website
TYPE Drawing by Carl Luer © and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website
LATE
EARLY 
Common Name The Large Eared Lepanthes [refers to the lobes of the lip]
Flower Size .2" [5 mm]
Found in Loja province of Ecuador in cold cloud forests at elevations around 2750 to 3300 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cold growing epiphyte with an erect, slender ramicaul enveloped by 4 to 8, minutely ciliate, lepanthiform sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, oblong-elliptical, acute, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the late summer and early fall on a filiform, flexuous, loose, to 2" [5 cm] long, successively single, few flowered inflorescence.
"Distinguished by the narrowly elliptical leaves usually equaled or surpassed by the loose raceme of flowers with shortly caudate sepals. The petals are transverse with an acute angle on the outer margin. The blades of the lip are broadly elliptical resembling a pair of large ears as they embrace the column." Luer 1996
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Phytologia 54: 359 Luer 1983; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XIV Systematics of Draconanthes, Lepanthes subgenus Marsipanthes and subgenus Lepanthes of Ecuador Luer 1996 drawing fide; Flora of Ecuador No 88 Lepanthes and affiliates Dodson & Luer 2011 drawing fide;
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