Trichosalpinx lenticularis (Luer) Luer 1997 SUBGENUS Tubella Luer 1986
Photo courtesy of Lisa Thoerle
TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer
Common Name The Lens-Shaped Trichosalpinx [refers to the shape of the leaf]
Flower Size 1/4" [7 mm]
Found in southeastern Ecuador in windswept elfin forests at elevations of 2700 to 3500 meters as a miniature sized, cold growing epiphyte with erect, slender ramicauls that can produce new ramicauls from the apex of the old and enveloped basally by 3 to 4 microscopically ciliate, lepanthiform sheaths and carrying a single, erect, thickly coriaceous with convex surfaces, often purple striped, elliptical, subacute to obtuse leaf that is cuneate below into a petiole and blooms in the summer and fall on a loose, single flowered with 2 to 3 flowers in succession, 2/3" to 1" [1.5 to 2.5 cm] long, racemose inflorescence arising from near the apex of the ramicaul.
"Closely allied to T pusilla but differs in the larger habit with larger flowers with purple striped sepals .4" [1 cm] long. Both species are characterized by a three lobed lip with mammillate calli at the forward angles of the lobes." Luer 1997
Synonyms *Pleurothallis lenticularis 1976; Tubella lenticularis (Luer) Archila 2000
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Selbyana 3: 132 Luer 1976 as Pleurothallis lenticularis drawing fide; *Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XV Systematics of Trichosalpinx Luer 1997 drawing fide
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
