Lepanthes refracta Luer 2001 SUBGENUS Lepanthes SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Lepanthes
TYPE drawing by © Carl Luer and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Webpage
Similar plant and flower but not
Photos by © Jean Marc Palandre and his Flickr Orchid Photo Webpage
LATER
AND
Common Name The Bent Back Lepanthes [refers to the sepals]
Flower Size .08" [2 mm]
Found in Valle de Cauca and Narino departments of Colombia without collection data as a mini-miniature sized epiphyte with slender, erect ramicauls enveloped by 4 to 12 , microscopically scabrous, acuminate lepanthiform sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, reticulated, subcircular, obtuse, shoprtly acuminate, rounded and abruptly contracted below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the later spring and fall on a slender, distichous, very congested, .68" [1.7 cm] long including the .44” [1.1 mm] long peduncle, successively many flowered inflorescence.
CAUTION The photos above are not L refracta, [the type drawing is absolutely correct] but they are very similar, but L refracta has an erect ramicaul enveloped by 4 to 12 lepanthiform sheaths, subcircular, reticulate leaves with a linear acumen and a shorter, successively many flowered densely distichous inflorescence of very small flowers with proportionally large apically triangular petals pushed flat against the sepals and a lip that wraps around the column.
"This small species is apparently endemic in the department of Valle del Cauca. It is distinguished by nearly orbicular leaves, and a shorter, successively flowered, densely distichous inflorescence of very small flowers. The sepals are glabrous and acutely reflexed backward around the column, and the petals are bilobed with the triangular lobes against the reflexed sepals. The lip is smaller than the column which it clasps with rounded lobes." Luer 2001
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Orquideologia Vol 22 #1 pg 48 Luer 2001 drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXXII Luer 2012 drawing fide; Orchids, A Colombian Treasure Vol 3 Ortiz & Uribe 2019 drawing fide;
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