Lepanthes petalopteryx Luer & R.Escobar 1994 SUBGENUS Lepanthes SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Lepanthes
TYPE Photo by Rodrigo Escobar/TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer and The Epidendra Webpage
LATE
Common Name The Winged Petal Lepanthes [refers to the shape of the petals]
Flower Size .2" [5 mm]
Found in Choco' department of Colombia at elevations around 1600 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cool growing epiphyte with slender, erect, ramicauls enveloped by 6 to 7 microscopically ciliate-scabrous lepanthiform sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, coricaceous, narrowly ovate, acute, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the late summer, fall and early winter on a slender, congested, distichous, .6 to .68" [1.5 to 1.7 cm] long including the .4 to .48" [1 to 1.2 cm] long peduncle, successively several flowered inflorescence with muricate floral bracts.
"A short raceme is borne beside a narrowly ovate leaf. The sepals are elliptical and obtuse. Most distinctive is the pair of large, winglike petals. The obliquely subquadrate lobes are almost mirror images of each other. The short column is surrounded by a reniform lip that is rounded when expanded. A microscopic lobule is present at the base in the shallow, apical incision." Luer & Escobar 1994
Similar to L viahoensis of the central cordillera of the Andes but L petalopterx has minutely denticulate sepals and 2 veined lateral sepals and the petals has obliquely truncate upper and lower lobes. The lips of both species are essentially the same.
Also similar to L pleurorachis, and L anchicayae
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Orquideologia Vol 19 #2 pg 106 Luer & Escobar 1994 drawing/photo fide; Native Colombian Orchids Vol 5 COS 1994 photo fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXXII Luer 2012 drawing fide; Orchids, A Colombian Treasure Vol 3 Ortiz & Uribe 2019 drawing fide;
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
