Lepanthes papilionacea Salazar, Soto Arenas & O.Suárez 1996 SUBGENUS Lepanthes SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Lepanthes
Photo by © E Greenwood
TYPE Drawing by © Salazar and El Genero Lepanthes Sw. En Mexico Salazar and Soto 1996
LATE
EARLY
Common Name The Papillate Lepanthes [refers to the hairiness of the flowers]
Flower Size .2” [5 mm]
Found in Oaxaca state of Mexico within cloud forests at elevations around 2400 meters as mini-miniature sized, cold growing epiphyte with ascending ramicauls enveloped by 3 to 4 lepanthiform sheaths and carrying a single, apical, coriaceous, elliptic to elliptic-ovate, acute to obtuse, flat on top, somewhat convex, fleshy beneath, apically tridentate, shortly petiolate base leaf that blooms in the late summer and early fall on up to 3 per ramicaul, only one per season per ramicaul, longer than the leaf, mostly on the top side of the leaf, peduncle thin, to .22” [5.5 mm] long, single tubular-infundibular bracted, rachis somewhat spiralled, not distichous, flexuous, 3/4” [1.8 cm] overall, successively 1 at a time, 2 to 9 flowered inflorescence with distichous, obliquely infundibular, acute floral bracts.
"Distinguished by the rigidly long ciliate sepals, deeply bilobed petals with the very different lobes in both form and size. The appendix of the lip is complete forming a small, triangular, glabrous, deflexed lamina surrounded by a lock of rigid hairs. This last feature is unparelelled in the genus as far as we know. In other aspects the species is similar to L suarezii but can be distinguished by the shorter than the leaf inflorescence, the color contrast in tone of the purple and yellow flowers, and details in the form and angle of the divergence of the lateral sepals and the lobes of the petals." Soto & Salazar 1996
The photo above is the type photo so it is absolutely correct.
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * El Genero Lepanthes Sw. En Mexico Salazar and Soto 1996 Photo/drawing fide;
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