Lepanthes wendtii Salazar & Soto Arenas 1996 SUBGENUS Lepanthes SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Lepanthes

Drawing by © Salazar & Soto

LATER

Common Name Wendt's Lepanthes [American Botanist in Mexico current]

Flower Size .22" [5.5 mm]

Found in Chiapas statae of Mexico in elfin forests and perennial low forests at elevations of 1800 to 1900 meters as a very caespitose, mini-miniature sized, cool growing epiphyte with erect, ramicauls enveloped by 4 to 6, clear yellow/coffee, acute, aristate, hispid lepanthiform sheaths and carrying a single, apical, elliptic, rounded, tridenticulate, petiollate base leaf that blooms in the spring and summer on a 1 to 6 per ramicaul, one per floracion, peduncle .12 to .2" [3 to 5 mm] long, with or without a basal, infundibuliform, brown, glabrous bract, rachis somewhat lax, non-flexuous, subequal to slightly longer than the leaf, to .72" [1.8 cm] long overall, successivley single, 5 to 10 flowered inflorescence with obliquely infundibuliform, acuminate, clear brown, sparsely muricate floral bracts.

"This is a unique standout within the Lepanthes of Mexico and is immediately separated from all others by the peculiar form of the petals which are quite similar to the double headed blade of medieval lances with an acute point in the middle on either side. The 2 series of hairs on the sepals is another distincive feature. The similar L lenticularis of southwestern Mexico and Guatemala but L wendtii is distinguished by the notably narrower flowers with only a single row of dense, comparitively short cilia on the sepal maargin, the different shape of the petals that are shortly apiculate, the laminae of the lip obliquely lanceolate and a recurved appendix with long hairs." Salazar & Soto 1996

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; El Genero Lepanthes Sw. in Mexico Salazar & Soto 1996 drawing/photo

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