Trichosalpinx nymphalis (Luer) Luer 1983 SUBGENUS Tubella Luer 1986

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

Common Name The Nymph-Like Trichosalpinx

Flower Size .2" [5 mm]

Found in Loja province of Ecuador at elevations around 2450 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cold growing epiphyte with suberect, ramicauls enveloped by 2 to 3 minutely ciliate, lepanthiform sheaths and carrying a single, apical, spreading, thickly coricaeous, broadly elliptical to suborbicular, obtuse, contracted below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the fall on a filiform, .4 to .64" [1 to 1.7 cm] long, successively and distantly 2 flowered inflorescence arising from near the apex of the ramicaul.

"Distinguished by the tiny tuft of thick, broadly elliptical leaves that obscure the short ramicuals. The lepanthiform sheaths are microscopically tiny. A comparitively large flower is borne singly above the leaves sometimes followed by another. The large dorsal sepal is deeply concave with a short, filiform tail. The apices of the bifid synsepal are terminated by similar tails. The lip is tri-lobed with the anterior lobe acute." Luer 1997

Synonyms *Pleurothallis nymphalis Luer 1981; Tubella nana (Ames & C.Schweinf.) Archila 2000; Tubella nymphalis (Luer) Archila 2000

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

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