Lepanthes gargantua Rchb. f. 1856 SUBGENUS Lepanthes SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Lepanthes Novon 1993
Flowers in situ Jardin Colombia 1/8/16
Leaf and Flowers in situ Jardin Colombia 1/8/16
Leaf and Flowers in situ Jardin Colombia 1/8/16
Photos by Jay Pfahl
Photo by Andreas Kay and his Flickr Orchid Photo Website
Photo by Patricia Harding
Common Name The Large Lepanthes [refers to the plant]
Flower Size .2" [5mm]
Found in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru as a medium to large sized [largest in the genus], cold growing epiphyte at elevations of 2600 to 3400 meters in wet cloud forests with erect, stout ramicauls enveloped basally by 11 to 16 microscopically scabrous lepanthiform sheaths carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, oblong-ovate, subacute to obtuse, acuminate leaf with the rounded base contracted into a petiole and blooms in the winter and spring on 1 to several, slender, simultaneous, congested, distichous, 3.2 to 4.4" [8 to 11 cm] long, including the .8 to 1.2" [2 to 3 cm] long peduncle, racemose, successively several, many flowered inflorescence arising from behind the leaf.
Although the smaller flowered L macrantha is similar, L gargantua has the petals with an oblong, rounded upper lobe without the apiculum between the lobes.
Synonyms Lepanthes pachyrhiza Luer & Hirtz 1987
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Xenia Orchidaceae Rchb.f 1854; Fieldiana Biology, Vol 33, 1st Supple. to the Orchids of Peru Schweinfurth 1970; Orchids Travel By Air A Pictoral Safari Mulder, Mulder-Roelfsema and Schuiteman 1990 photo fide; Native Colombian Orchids Vol 2 COS 1991 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 64 No 10 1995 photo fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XIV Systematics of Draconanthes and Lepanthes 1996 drawing fide; Orchid Species of Peru Zelenko Bermudez 2009 photo fide; Flora of Ecuador No 88 Lepanthes and affiliates Dodson & Luer 2011 drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXXII Luer 2012 drawing fide; Orchids A Colombian Treasure Vol 3 Ortiz & Uribe 2019 drawing/photo fide;
Checked to Luer's Drawing OK
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