Lepanthes stalactites Luer & Hirtz 1987 SUBGENUS Brachycladium SECTION Bilamellatae
Photo by © Lisa Thoerle
Photo by © Alexander Hirtz
TYPE Drawing by Carl Luer and Lindleyana 2: 107 Luer 1987
Common Name or Meaning The Stalactite Lepanthes [refers to the dangling pendant plant]
Flower Size .1" [3 mm]
Found in Ecuador and Peru in wet forests at elevations around 2600 to 3000 meters as a large to giant sized, pendant, cold growing epiphyte with stout ramicauls enveloped by 2 glabrous, lepanthiform sheaths and carrying pendant, overlapping, thickly coriaceous, elliptical, subacute, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the fall through spring on a congested, to .1" [to 3mm] long, successively few flowered, racemose inflorescence arising on top of the leaf.
"Vegetatively this species is probably the largest and coarsest of all the species in the SUBGENUS Brachycladium and has long, pendent cylinders of the fleshy, overlapping leaves dangle in masses or individually from the undersurfaces of large, mossy, horizontal tree trunks in the cold mountain forests above Jimbura near the Peruvian border. It is locally abundant, some large branches can support dozens of the dangling, stalactite-like plants. The flowers are small, but numerous." Luer 1987
Synonyms Andinia stalactites (Luer & Hirtz) Karremans & S.V.Uribe 2017; Brachycladium stalactites (Luer & Hirtz) Luer 2005; Neooreophilus stalactites (Luer & Hirtz) Archila 2009; Oreophilus stalactites (Luer & Hirtz) Archila 2009; Penducella stalactites (Luer & Hirtz) Luer 2010;
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Lindleyana 2: 105 Luer 1987 Drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XI Luer 1994 drawing fide; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 2 2001 drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVII Dryadella and Acronia section Macrophyllae-Fasiculatae Luer 2005 as Brachycladium stalactites; Orchid Species of Peru Zelenko Bermudez 2009 photo fide; Selbyana 29(2): 203. 2009 Archila as Oreophilus stalactites; Orchid Digest 74(2): 69. 2010 Luer as Penducella stalactites photo fide; Flora of Ecuador No 88 Lepanthes and affiliates Dodson & Luer 2011 as Penducella stalactites drawing fide; Pleurothallids Neotropical Jewels Vol 1 Karremans & Viera 2020 as Andinia stalactites photo fide
Checked type drawing W3Tropicos OK
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