Lepanthes vargasii J.S.Moreno, S.V.Uribe & Karremans 2017 SUBGENUS Lepanthes SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Lepanthes
TYPE Photo/TYPE Drawing by © Sebastian Vieira and The Research Gate Webpage
EARLIER
Common Name Vargas' Lepanthes [The name honors Colombian conservationist and botanist William G. Vargas, whose passion and dedication for plants inspired the first author to be immersed in the world of botany and taxonomy.]
Flower Size .12" [3 mm]
Found in Valle de Cauca department of Colombia at elevations arond 1800 to 1900 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cool growing, caespitose epiphyte with suberect, slender ramicauls enveloped by up to 5 to 11, microscopically ciliate along the margins ending in a dilated acuminate ostia lepanthiform sheaths and carrying a single, apical, green suffused with purple and verrucose abaxially, more or less hanging, subcoriaceous, conduplicate, narrowly ovate-elliptic, tridentate with the tip of the central vein protruding abaxially within the sinus, contracted and cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the earlier summer on a longer than the leaf, arising on the top of the leaf, descending, peduncle filiform, terete, .52" [1.3 cm] long, rachis flexuous, .36" [9 mm] long, congested, distichous, successively single, few flowered inflorescence with shorter than the pedicel floral bracts.
"Similar to Lepanthes pelorostele Luer & Hirtz but distinguished by the orange, ciliate sepals on the exterior margins of the lateral sepals (vs. white and glabrous), the larger petals (the longest (lower) lobe 2 mm, vs. 0.5 mm long) and the larger lip (1.0 vs. 0.3 mm long), that is placed at the column apex (vs. placed basally)" Vieira and Moreno 2018
"Lepanthes vargasii with its narrowly triangular-lanceolate sepals, trilobed petals, and lip connate close to the apex of a terete, protruding column to close to the apex resembles the Ecuadorian species, Lepanthes equus-frisiae, Lepanthes pelorostele , L scrotifera and L rigidigitata, the Colombian species L abortiva, L eros, L isoceles, L micellilabia and L niphas and the Costa Rican L posthon and L spadariae and L vestgialis.
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Lankesteriana 17: 227 Moreno Vieira & Karremans 2017 drawing/photo fide;
Orchids, A Colombian Treasure Vol 3 Ortiz & Uribe 2019 drawing/photo fide;
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