Lepanthes troxis Luer & R.Escobar 1991 SUBGENUS Lepanthes SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Lepanthes
TYPE Photo by © Rodrigo Escobar/TYPE Drawing by Carl Luer
Photo by © Ecuagenera Orchid Website
LATE 
EARLY
Common Name The Caterpillar Lepanthes [refers to the seemingly gnawed petals and the prescence of a caterpillar-like appendix]
Flower Size .2" [5 mm]
Found in Cundinamarca and Risaralda departments of Colombia in cloud forests at elevations around 2700 meters as a miniature sized, cold growing epiphyte with slender, erect, ramicauls enveloped by 8 to 12, coarsely ciliate lepanthiform sheaths with dilate ostia and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, dark purple, immature leaves ovate, acute, flat, the mature leaves spreading, narrowly ovate, acute, acuminate, revolute and undulate margined, mid rib prominent beneath, the rounded, convex and contracted below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms late spring through early fall on a filiform, subdense, [1.6 to 1.8 cm] long including ther [8 to 10 mm] long peduncle, successively single, few flowered inflorescence arising on top of the leaf.
"This species is closely allied to the Ecuadorian L. contingens Luer. but L. troxis is identified by the recurved. undulate margins of the leaves. the erose petals. and the slender. longciliate. worm-like appendix. The two species share in common the thin blades of the lip notched in front. a long. slender claw connecting the body of the lip to the base of very slender column. and a peculiar, fingerlike appendage from the stigma." Luer & Escobar 1991
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Orquideologia 18: 150 Luer & Escobar 1991 drawing fide; Native Colombian Orchids Vol 5 COS 1994 photo fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXXII Luer 2012 drawing fide; Orchids, A Colombian Treasure Vol 3 Ortiz & Uribe 2019 photo fide;
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