Lepanthes pelyx Luer & Hirtz 1996 SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Mucronatae Luer 1996
Photo by © Juan Sebastain Moreno
Photo by © Jean Marc Pallandre and his Flickr Orchid Photo Website
TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer
Common Name The Basin Lepanthes [refers to the broadly concave body of the lip]
Flower Size .2" [5 mm]
Found in Ecuador on the western slopes of the Andes in very wet montane forests at elevations around 1200 to 2100 meters as a mini-miniature to miniature sized, warm to cold growing epiphyte with slender, erect ramicauls enveloped by 13 to 15, ciliate, leapanthiform sheaths and carrying a single, apical, suberect to almost horizontal, thinly coriaceous, purple suffused, lightly reticulate, ovate, acute, long-acuminate, round and contracted into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the winter and spring on a slender, 1 to 1.6" [2.5 to 4 cm] long, congested, successively several to many flowered inflorescence arising from behind the leaf.
"Closely related to L cotyledon with similar vegetative parts but it has much more dilated ostia of the lepanthiform sheaths. L pelyx is further distinguished by the shorter pedicels, subquadrate instead of hatchet-shaped upper lobes of the petals, minutely ciliate blades of the lip with acute, incurved apices and a broad, shallowly concave body." Luer 1996
Similar species include, L cotyledon , L mucronata, L abitaguae, L corrugata, L ortegae, L pilosiaures and L rhodophylla.
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
*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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