Lepanthes velata Luer & Hirtz 1987 SUBGENUS Lepanthes SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Breves Luer 1986 SERIES Breves Luer 1996

TYPE Drawing by Carl Luer © and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website

Common Name The Covered Lepanthes [refers to the petals that are behind the lip]

Flower Size .12" [3 mm]

Found in Morona-Santiago province of Ecuador in cold cloud forests at elevations around 3180 meters as a small sized, cold growing epiphyte with an erect, slender ramicaul enveloped by 11 to 13, dark brown, minutely ciliate-scabrous, lepanthiform sheaths with a dilated ostia carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, narrowly ovate, acute, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the summer and fall on a filiform, subcongested, to .6 to 1.1" [1.5 to 2.6 cm] long, successively single, several flowered inflorescence arising on the back of the leaf.

" Vegetatively this species is similar to L monoptera with which it is sympatric, but the flowers of L velata are more closely spaced. The length of the rachis between bracts is slightly longer than the short pedicels. In addition the sepals of L velata are entire instead of denticulate and the appendix is a minute, bilobulate organ on the front surface of the body of the lip. As in all these related speis the petals are single veined. The most conspicuous feature of this species is the pair of petals mostly hidden behind the blades of the lip. The upper lobes cross above the lip in all flowers examined, a feature often seen in buds and aging flowers of some other species, but is an uncommon natural position for the flowers." Luer 1996

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Lindleyana 2: 108 Luer 1987 Drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XIV Systematics of Draconanthes, Lepanthes subgenus Marsipanthes and subgenus Lepanthes of Ecuador Luer 1996 drawing fide; Flora of Ecuador No 88 Lepanthes and affiliates Dodson & Luer 2011 drawing fide

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