Lepanthopsis melanantha [Rchb.f] Ames 1933 SUBGENUS Lepanthopsis SECTION Fractipectin Luer 1991 Photo by Carl Luer and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website

Inflorescence Photo courtesy of Andy's Orchids Copyright © 2002 All rights reserved.

Common Name The Black Flowered Lepanthopsis

Flower Size 1/8" [2 mm]

Found in all large islands in the greater Antilles as well as rarely in the Fakahatchee swamp in Florida at elevations of 3 to 1300 meters with erect, slender ramicauls enveloped by 4 to 8 long ciliate, lepanthiform sheaths carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, subacute to obtuse leaf with the base cuneate into the petiole, that is a free-blooming, miniature, cool to warm growing epiphyte on a congested, distichous, 3/8" [4 cm] long, simultaneously opening several flowered, racemose inflorescence arising from near the apex of the ramicaul.

Synonyms Lepanthes brevipetala Fawc. & Rendle 1909; Lepanthes harrisii Fawc. & Rendle 1909; Lepanthopsis quisqueyana Dod 1986; Pleurothallis floripicta Lindl. 1861; *Pleurothallis melanantha Rchb. f. 1865

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Symbolae Antillanae Vol VI Orchidaceae Urban 1909 as Pleurothallis melanantha; Symbolae Antillanae Vol VI Orchidaceae Urban 1909 as Lepanthes brevipetala; Flora of Jamaica Fawcett & Rendle 1910 as Lepanthes brevipetala; Flora of Jamaica Fawcett & Rendle 1910 as Lepanthes brevipetala; The Native Orchids of Florida Luer 1972 drawing/photos fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 44 #8 1975; Catologo Descriptivo de Las Orquideas Cubanas Acuna 1987 as Pleurothallis melanantha; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Systematics of Lepanthospsis, Octomeria subgenus Pleurothallopsis, Restrepiella, Salpistele and Teagueia Vol 8 1991 drawing fide; An Orchid Flora Of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands Ackerman 1995; AOS Bulletin Vol 72 No 3 2003 photo fide;

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