Trichosalpinx inaequisepala (C.Schweinf.) Luer 1983 SUBGENUS Tubella Luer 1986

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

Common Name The Unequal sepal Trichosalpinx

Flower Size .08" [2 mm]

Found in Peru and Bolivia at elevations around 3000 to 3666 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cold growing epiphyte with erect, slender, occasionally proliferating ramicauls enveloped by 2 to 5, closely adpressed, lepanthiform sheaths with ciliate ostia and carrying a single, apical, erect, thickly coricaeous, elliptical, subacute to obtuse, contracted below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the winter through late spring on a loose, .12 to .24" [3 to 6 mm] long including the .04 to .08" [1 to 2 mm] long peduncle, simultaneously 2 to 4 flowered inflorescence arising from near the apex of the ramicaul.

"Characterized by the short, few flowered raceme of tiny flowers with a proportionally large, deeply concave dorsal sepal with a short tail. The petals are oblique and acute and the lip is elliptical-ovate or rhomboid with a subacute apex." Luer 1997

Synonyms *Pleurothallis inaequisepala C.Schweinf. 1942; Tubella inaequisepala (C.Schweinf.) Archila 2000

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XV Systematics of Trichosalpinx Luer 1997 drawing fide;

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