Lepanthes ribes Luer 1976 SUBGENUS Marsipanthes SECTION Marisipanthes
Photo by © J & L Orchids and their Orchid Website
Photo by © Jay Pfahl
Photo by © Eric Hunt
Photo by © Lourens Grobler
TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website
Common Name The Ribes-Like Flower Lepanthes [Refers to the flower appearing like a fruit of the genus Ribes]
Flower Size 3/8" [1 cm]
Found in Colombia and Ecuador in wet montane cloud forests at elevations of 1400 to 2400 meters as a mini-miniature to miniature sized, cool to cold growing, caespitose epiphytic and terrestrial species found with erect, slender ramicauls enveloped by 6 to 9 scabrous, lepanthiform sheaths carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, subacute leaf that is cuneate below into a petiole and blooms on a subdense, erect, [4.5 to 6 cm] long including the .8 to 1.6" [2 to 3.5 cm] long peduncle, successively several-flowered raceme with the solitary flower pendant and held well beyond the leaf by a slender drooping fractiflex peduncle. This is a free flowering species.
"This species is uncommon in southern Colombia and northern Ecuador. Although vegetatively it is similar to many other species of the genus, the large, pendent, saccate, purple-mottled flower is easily recognized. The concave dorsal sepal is connate nearly half its length to the lateral sepals to form a gaping sepaline cup. The apices of the lateral sepals reflex below the aperture. The long, green petals from deep within the cup reach to the opening. The lip is small and horseshoe-shaped surrounding the column." Luer 1996
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Selbyana Vol 3 14 Luer 1976 Drawing fide; Native Orchids of Colombia Vol 5 Luer 1994 phot ofide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XIV Systematics of Draconanthes, Lepanthes subgenus Marsipanthes and subgenus Lepanthes of Ecuador Luer 1996 drawing fide; Orchid Digest Vol 62 #2 1998 photo fide; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 2 Dodson 2001 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 76 No 1 2007 photo fide; Flora of Ecuador No 88 Lepanthes and affiliates Dodson & Luer 2011 drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXXII Luer 2012 drawing fide; Orchid Digest Vol 83 #3 2019 photo fide; Orchids, A Colombian Treasure Vol 3 Ortiz & Uribe 2019 drawing/photo fide;
Checked Luer OK
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