
Lepanthes ridicula Luer 1999
Photo by © Earth.com Website
TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer and Epidendra Orchid Website
LATE
Common Name The Ridiculous Lepanthes [refers to the unusual floral morphology of this species]
Flower Size .08" [2 mm]
Found in Chiriqui department of Panama as a mini-miniature sized epiphyte, with slender, erect ramicauls enveloped by 13 to 15, light brown, minutely ciliate, lepanthiform sheaths with dilated ostia and carrying a single, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, slightly concave, acute, acuminate, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the late spring on a filiform, congested, successively single, few flowered inflorescence arising on the back of the leaf.
"The plant is normal but the flower parts are unusual, The dorsal sepals is reflexed with the denticulate margins recurved a short distance above the broad base. The lateral sepals are triangular, denticulate and convex below the middle and recurved above the middle wherupon they become slihtly concave. The oblong petals stand erect with the lower lobe reduced to a tiny nubbin. The lip is similar to that of some species of Subgenus Brachycladium with broadelyexpanded lateal lobes surrounding the column." Luer 1999
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; *Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XVIII Systematics of Pleurothallis subsection Antenniferae, Longiracemosae, Macrophyllae-Racemosae and Subgenera Pseudsostelis and Acuminata Luer 1999 drawing fide;
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