Lepanthes apiculata Dod ex Luer 2003 SUBGENUS Lepanthes SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Lepanthes

TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer and Selbyana 24: 7 Dod ex Luer 2003

LATER

Common Name The Apiculate Lepanthes [refers to the decurved apex of the lip]

Flower Size to .12" [to 3 mm]

Found in Haiti without locational or elevational data as a mini-miniature sized, caespitose epiphyte with slender, erect ramicauls enveloped by 5 to 7 minutely ciliate-scabrous lepanthiform sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical-ovate, subacute, rounded to cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the spring on an erect, borne behind the leaf by a filiform peduncle .08" [2 mm] long, rachis .16 " [4 mm] long, congested, distichous, successively single, several flowered inflorescence with slightly subechinate, as long as the pedicel floral bracts.

"This species is known only from a collection by Dod who cultivated it as Formond #4. It is characterized by a small or medium-sized habit with an arching, congested raceme borne behind and to the side of an elliptical-ovate leaf. The sepals are ovate and acute, with the laterals connate near the middle. The upper lobe of the petals is oblong while the triangular lower lobe is smaller. The cordate-trilobed lip is unique in the genus with incomplete blades below the middle, and with a middle lobe strongly decurved, entire and apiculate. The apiculum would be analogous to the appendix." Luer 2003

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Selbyana 24: 5 Dod ex Luer 2003 drawing fide; Orchid Flora of the Greater Antilles Ackerman 2014

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