Lepanthes vermicularis Luer 1983 SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Elongatae 1993

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

LATE EARLY

Common Name The Worm-Like Lepanthes [refers to the Appendix]

Flower Size .2" [5 mm]

Found in Zamora-Chinchipe province of Ecuador at elevations around 2600 to 3050 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cold growing epiphyte with a slender, erect ramicaul enveloped by 3 to 4, minutely ciliate lepanthiform sheaths and carrying a single, apical, suberect, coriaceous, obovate, obtuse, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the late summer and early fall on a filiform, erect, loose, flexuous, progressively lengthening, 2" [5 cm] long, successively single, few flowered inflorescence.

Similar to L caudata, L floresii, L jimburae, L paradoxa and L synema, but differs in the loose, flexuous raceme much longer than the leaves. The sepals are shortly caudate, the rounded, upper lobes of the petals are prominent and the appendix is stout, glabrous and incurved." Luer 1996

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Phytologia 54: 376 Luer 1983; 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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