Lepanthes inaequisepala Luer & J.J.Portilla 2002 SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Elongatae 1993

Photo by © Bart & Helene Gendel and their Briggs Hill Orchids

Another Flower Photo by Ecuagenera and their Ecuador Orchid Website

Common Name or MeaningThe Unequal Sepals Lepanthes

Flower Size .4" [1 cm]

Found in Ecuador in cloud forests at elevations around 1800 meters as a miniature sized, cool growing epiphyte with slender, erect ramicauls enveloped basally by 6 to 7, microscopically ciliate, lepanthiform sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, acute, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the fall on a suberect, flexuous, 4" [10 cm] long, loose, successively several flowered, racemose inflorescence that far surpasses the leaf.

Related to L elegantula but has relatively large flowers on a long, flexuous, distantly flowered racemose inflorescence that far exceed the leaf. The dorsal sepal is large and concave and has a long-acuminate tip. The synsepal is narrowly linear beyond the base terminating into a pair of acute tips and the petals are "S" shaped.

Synonyms

References Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XIV Systematics of Draconanthes, Lepanthes subgenus Marsipanthes and subgenus Lepanthes of Ecuador Luer 1996 drawing fide; in *Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXIV Luer 2002 drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVII Luer 2005 in corrigenda; Flora of Ecuador No 88 Lepanthes and affiliates Dodson & Luer 2011 drawing fide

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