Lepanthes urotepala Rchb.f. 1856 SUBGENUS Lepanthes SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Lepanthes
Photos by © Andreas Kay and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website
Drawing by © Carl Luer and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website
Similar flower but not see L dicytropetala?
Photo by © Lourens Grobler
Common Name The Tail Like Petal Lepanthes [refers to the long-acuminate upper lobe of the petal]
Flower Size .2" [5 mm]
Found in Ecuador at elevations around 2100 to 2600 meters as a miniature sized, cold growing epiphyte with an erect, slender ramicaul enveloped by 8 to 11, microscopically scabrous lepanthiform sheaths carrying a single, apical, erect, thickly coriaceous, elliptical, acute to subacute or acuminate, cuneate to rounded and contracted below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the fall and winter on a filiform, congested, disitchous, 1 to 1.6" [2.5 to 4 cm] long, successively many flowered inflorescence arising on the top of the leaf.
Similar to L antennata, L dicyrtopetala, L silverstoneii and L vibrissa. Similar to L marshana but differs in the bi-segmented appendix.
Distinguished by the congested raceme borne behind an elliptical, acuminate leaf. The sepals are obtuse and the most distinctive feature is the long-acuminate upper lobes of the petals that exceed the dorsal sepal. The lower lobes are less than a third as long. The blades of the lip are oblong and the appendix is bisegmented. Similar to L papyrophyla but it differs with the acute, acuminate lateral sepals and narrowly triangular lobes of the petals about equal to each other." Luer 1996
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; *Xenia Rchb.f 1856; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XIV Systematics of Draconanthes, Lepanthes subgenus Marsipanthes and subgenus Lepanthes of Ecuador Luer 1996 drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XV Systematics of Trichosalpinx Luer 1997; Flora of Ecuador No 88 Lepanthes and affiliates Dodson & Luer 2011 drawing fide to drawing not photo;
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
