Lepanthes xenos Luer & Hirtz 1987 SUBGENUS Lepanthes SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Lepanthes
Photo by © Carl Luer and The Epidendra Website
TYPE by © Carl Luer
Common Name The Alien Lepanthes [refers to unusual characteristics of the the flower]
Flower Size .4" [1 cm]
Found in eastern Ecuador at elevations around 2100 to 2450 meters as a small sized, cold growing epiphyte with an erect, robust ramicaul enveloped by 13 to 15, ciliate lepanthiform sheaths carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, ovate , acute to acuminate, rounded and abruptly contracted below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the fall on a filiform, very congested, disitchous, 2" [5 cm] long, successively flowered inflorescence arising on the back of the leaf.
"Vegetativley very similar to many but the flower is unique. The caudate lateral sepals are concave with their back surfaces touching, the lower lobe of the petals is minute and the elongated rostellum protrudes from between the lobes of the lip." Luer 1996
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XIV Systematics of Draconanthes, Lepanthes subgenus Marsipanthes and subgenus Lepanthes of Ecuador Luer 1996 drawing fide;
Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 2 Dodson 2001 photo fide;
Flora of Ecuador No 88 Lepanthes and affiliates Dodson & Luer 2011 drawing fide;
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
