Lepanthes costaricensis Schltr. 1923 SUBGENUS Lepanthes SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Lepanthes
Photo by Eerika Schulz
Photo by Eric Hunt, plant grown by Hawk Hill Nursery
LECTOTYPE Drawing by Ames and the The Epidendra Website
to 
LATE
and 
Common Name The Costa Rican Lepanthes
Flower Size .1" [2.5 mm]
Found in El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica in montane rain forests or cloud forests as well as fence post trees along pasture lands at elevations of 1300 to 1500 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cool growing epiphyte with a short stem enveloped completely by 2 to 3, lepanthiform sheaths and carrying a single, apical, elliptic to ovate leaf that blooms in the late summer and fall on a terminal, filiform inflorescnece with distichous, successively opening flowers.
CAUTION Said to be synomonous with L reflexa with this name taking precedence but our Costa Rican colleagues feel that it is different, so I have left it separate until more information becomes available.
Synonyms Lepanthes inaequiloba Ames & C.Schweinf. 1930;
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Lankester's Epidendra Website CR CHECKED Type OK; * Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 19: 22. Costa Rica Schlechter 1923; Las Orquedias De El Salvador Vol 2 Hamer 1974 drawing/photo ok; Las Orquedias de El Salvador Vol 3 Hamer 1981 drawing fide; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 1023 Dodson 1984 drawing fide; Selbyana Vol 10 Orchids of Central America Hamer 1988 drawing fide; Orchids Travel By Air A Pictoral Safari Mulder, Mulder-Roelfsema and Schuiteman 1990 photo ok; Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica Vol 3 Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003;
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