Lepanthes suarezii Salazar & Soto Arenas 1996 SUBGENUS Lepanthes SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Lepanthes

TYPE Drawing

Photo by © E Greenwood/TYPE Drawing by O Suarez and El Genero Lepanthes Sw. En Mexico Salazar and Soto 1996

LATER EARLY EARLY

Common Name Suarez’s Lepanthes [Mexican Orchid Enthusiast and collector current]

Flower Size .2” [5 mm]

Found in Oaxaca state of Mexico within cloud forests at elevations around 2000 to 2300 meters as mini-miniature sized, cold growing epiphyte or occassional lithophyte with spreading ramicauls enveloped by 3 to 5 lepanthiform sheaths and carrying a single, apical, coriaceous, slightly fleshy, elliptic to occasionally suborbicular, subacute to obtuse sometimes acuminate, flat to conduplicate, concave, olive green on top, often purple beneath, apically tridentate, shortly petiolate base leaf that blooms in the later spring through early fall on up to 4 per ramicaul, only one per season per ramicaul, 1/2 to 3 times as long as the leaf, on the back side of the leaf, minutely verrucose and often purple, peduncle thin, to .2 to .32” [5 to 8 mm] long, single tubular-infundibular bracted, rachis moderately dense, flexuous, .4 to .84” [1 to 2.1 cm] overall, successively 1 at a time, 5 to 15 flowered inflorescence with distichous, obliquely infundibular, translucent, acute to apiculate floral bracts.

The photo above is the type photo so it is absolutely correct.

If a Lepanthes is found on rocks within Mexico it is this species as it is the only Mexican species that is known to habituate rocks.

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * El Genero Lepanthes Sw. En Mexico Salazar and Soto 1996 Photo/drawing fide; Algunas Orquideas de Oaxaca Suarez 2004 photo fide;

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------