Lepanthes ricaurtensis Luer & R.Escobar 1994
SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Mucronatae Luer 1996 Photos by © Sebastain Moreno and his Flickr Orchid Photo Webpage TYPE drawing by © Carl Luer
and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Webpage Common Name The Ricaurte Lepanthes [a town in the department of Narino]
Flower Size .12" [3 mm]
Found in Narino department of Colombia at elevations around 1600 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cool growing epiphyte with slender, suberect ramicauls enveloped by 5 to 9, microscopically ciliate lepanthiform sheaths and carrying a single, apical, suberect, coriaceous, narrowly ovate, acute, acuminate, conspicuously tridentate, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the fall on a congested, distichous, .8" [2 cm] long including the .6” [1.5 cm] long peduncle, successively several flowered inflorescence with oblique floral bracts.
"This weak, little species is superficially similar to the common Lepanthes
mucronata . Tiny flowers with green, irregularly truncate petals are borne
on the upper surface of narrowly ovate leaves. The lips of the two species,
however, are profoundly different. Instead of a large, oblong, concave appendix
beneath thin, membranous blades of the lip, the appendix of L. ricaurtensis is
short and triangular, and the blades of the lip are comparatively thick." Luer 1994
Part of the L mucronata complex in the green irregularly truncate petals on top of the narrowly ovate leaf but differs in the lip, instead of a large oblong, concave appendix beneath the thin membraneous blades of the lip in L mucronata this one has a short and triangular appendix and the blades of the lip are quite thick.
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Orquideoplogia Vol 19 #2 1994 drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXXII Luer 2012 drawing fide; Orchids, A Colombian Treasure Vol 3 Ortiz & Uribe 2019 drawing/photo fide;
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