Lepanthes peruviana Damian & B.T.Larsen 2017 SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Elongatae 1993
Photos by © Alexander Damian/TYPE Drawing by Greta Damian
LATE
EARLY
Common Name The Peruvian Lepanthes
Flower Size .8" [2 cm wide x 2.92" [7.3 cm] long
Found in Amazonas province of Peru in dense, humid cloud forest around 2800 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cold growing, caespitose epiphyte with erect, slender ramicauls enveloped by 4 to 6, closely adpressed, ribbed, minutely ciliate-muriculate, pale brown lepanthiform sheaths with obliquely acute, dilated apices and carrying a single, erect, coriaceous, elliptic, acuminasubacute to obtuse, cuneate below into the conduplicate, acuminate apically petiolate base leaf that blooms in the late summer and early fall on a racemose, erect, much longer than the leaf, peduncle 2.4 to 4" [6 to 10 cm] long, 9.2" [23 cm] long overall, rachis 5.2 to 6.8" [13 to 17 cm] long, loose, secund, successively single, many flowered inflorescence with conduplicate, acute, muricate, shorter to a bit longer than the pedicel floral bracts.
"Both vegetatively and florally, this handsome large flowered species is superficially similar to Lepanthes vasquezii, from neighboring Bolivia. The flowers of Lepanthes peruviana are distinguished from those of L. vasquezii by their larger size, smooth ovary, and lateral sepals connate by about one third of their length into a long tailed, bifid synsepal. The petals are similar in shape, but L. peruviana has the lower lobes more acuminate, and upper lobes more oblong." Damian & B T Larsen 2017
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Phytotaxa 291[2]: 153 Damian & Larsen 2017 Three new species of Lepanthes (Pleurothalldinae: Orchidaceae) From Amazonas, Peru drawing/photo fide;
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