Lepanthes similis Luer 1996 SUBGENUS Lepanthes SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Lepanthes

TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer and the Epidendra Orchid Website

Common Name The Similar To Lepanthes

Flower Size .12" [3 mm]

Found in Costa Rica at elevations of 2700 to 2800 meters as a miniature sized, cold growing epiphyte with erect, slender ramicauls enveloped by 7 to 11, glabrous to microscopically ciliate, light brown, lepanthiform sheaths with oblique, acuminate ostia and carrying a single, thinly coriaceous, erect, ovate, acute, slightly acuminate, cuneate and contracted below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms late winter and early spring on a slender, congested, distichous, .9" [2.3 cm] long, successively many flowered inflorescence arising on the back of the leaf with muriculate floral bracts

Part of the L disicha complex which includes L olmosii, L parvilabia, L poasensis and L casasae but differs in the light colored, obliquely acuminate sheaths of the ramicaul

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; *Lindleyana 11: 64. 1996 Luer drawing fide; Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica Vol 3 Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003; Vanishing Beauty, Native Costa Rican Orchids Vol 2 Lacaena to Pteroglossa Pg 449 Pupulin 2020 photo/drawing fide;

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