Lepanthes wakemaniae S.Vieira-Uribe & J.S.Moreno 2022 SUBGENUS Lepanthes SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Lepanthes
Photos by © Sebastian Vieira- Uribe /Drawing by © J S Moreno and A NEW SPECIES OF LEPANTHES (PLEUROTHALLIDINAE) FROM THE NORTH OF THE CENTRAL ANDES OF COLOMBIA
Common Name Wakeman's Lepanthes [The name of the new species memorializes Elizabeth “Betty” Wakeman (Eshbaugh) Henderson from the USA, who lived from 1916 to 1997, an ardent lover of the natural world and everything botanical.]
Flower Size .15" [3 mm]
Found in Antioquia department of Colombia on moss-covered twigs and trunks near the border of a well preserved and orchid-rich mature forest along a river at elevations around 1540 meters as a minature sized, cool growing epiphyte with slender, suberect to horizontal ramicauls enclosed by 5 to 9 acuminate, ribbed, ciliate along the ribs lepanthiform sheaths, with ciliate dilated margins carrying a single, apical, more or less horizontal, coriaceous, occasionally suffused with purple along the veins on the adaxial surface, abaxially speckled with purple and suffused with purple along the veins, acrodromous and reticulate-veined, ovate to lanceolate, the apex attenuate, the rounded base contracted into the petiolate base leaf that blooms at least in the fall on. a congested, distichous, filiform, terete peduncle up to .8" [2 cm] long, borne near the apex of the ramicaul, 1.64" [4.1 cm] long including the peduncle, up to ¾ the length of the leaf, held appressed to the abaxial surface of the leaf, successively few, many-flowered inflorescence with conical, acuminate, ciliate, shorter than the pedicel floral bracts.
"Lepanthes wakemaniae can be uniquely recognized from all other species of the genus by the following combination of characters: medium sized plants with leaves ovate to lanceolate, acrodromous and reticulate-veined, the veins tinted with purple abaxially, sometimes also adaxially; the flowers resting on the abaxial surface of the leave with microscopically pubescent petals and lip; the petals transversally bilobed with the upper lobes imbricate, oblong to ovate, slightly longer than the oblique, triangular lower lobes and a bilaminate lip with semi-ovate blades longer that the lower lobes of the petals, with the inner margins touching above the column but not adherent, and the lip appendix ligulate, pubescent, with the pubescence longer at the apex toward the sides. Similar to L caeseriata but L. wakemaniae is easily distinguished by having petals with the upper lobes oblong to ovate and the lower lobes triangular (vs. oblong and oblique) that are microscopically pubescent (vs. densely long pubescent, ciliate); a lip with semi-ovate blades (vs. oblong subtruncate) with their inner margins touching above the column (vs. adherent above the column) and the appendix ligulate and pubescent with the pubescence longer at the apex toward the sides (vs. oblong, short and pubescent). Lepanthes wakemaniae can be distinguished from L. hymenoptera and L. reventador by producing the inflorescence on the abaxial surface of the leaves (vs. on the adaxial surface), the petals microscopically pubescent (vs. short pubescent, L. reventador with long pubescent lower lobes), with the upper lobe oblong to ovate with the apex rounded to sub-truncate (vs. oblong, truncate), the lip blades barely touching above the column (vs. adherent medially) and the appendix ligulate (vs. ovoid in L. hymenoptera and filiform in L. reventador). Lepanthes tectorum also produces its inflorescence on the abaxial surface of the leaf, but it can be easily separated from L. wakemaniae by the lip blades broadly ovate (vs. semi-ovate) that are adherent medially above the column (vs. barely touching above the column) and a pubescent, longitudinally tripartite appendix (vs. ligulate appendix)." Vieira & Moreno 2022
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* A NEW SPECIES OF LEPANTHES (PLEUROTHALLIDINAE) FROM THE NORTH OF THE CENTRAL ANDES OF COLOMBIA Vieira & Moreno 2022 photo fide;
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