Lepanthes bibarbullata Luer 2002 SUBGENUS Lepanthes SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Lepanthes

Photo by Ecuagenera and their Ecuador Orchid Website

Common Name or Meaning The Two Barbed Lepanthes [refers to the lower tendril on the petals]

Flower Size .2" [5mm]

Found in Carchi province of Ecuador at elevations around 754 meters as a mini-miniature sized, warm growing epiphyte with erect, slender ramicauls enveloped by 1 to 4 lepanthiform sheaths and carrying a single, apical, ovate to almost round, obtuse, reticulate, rounded and contracted basally into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the spring on an erect then arcuate, slender, .6" [1.5 cm] long, successively single, several to many flowered inflorescence arising on top of the leaf.

Related to L calodictyon, but differs in the congested raceme arching above the surface with sparsely denticulate, broad, obtuse, shortly acuminate sepals and transversely oblong petals eith a long filementous process descending from the base of the lower lobe and passing behind the lip which is thin, suborbicular and is attached to the column by a slender claw.

Similar to the wide-ranging L calodictyon and sufficiently different from the following to be separate species L. barbelifera , L microcalodictyon L pantominia, L pretiosa, L salatrix L tentacula, L. tortuosa , L volador and the recently described species L. kayii .

Checked type W3Tropicos OK

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; *Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXIV Luer 2002 drawing fide; Flora of Ecuador No 88 Lepanthes and affiliates Dodson & Luer 2011 drawing fide; Lankesteriana 18: 183 Baquero & J S Moreno 2018 photo fide

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