Lepanthes inaequisepala Luer & J.J.Portilla 2002 SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Elongatae 1993
Photo by © Bart & Helene Gendel and their Briggs Hill Orchids
Photo by Ecuagenera and their Ecuador Orchid Website
TYPE Drawing by Carl Luer
Common Name or MeaningThe Unequal Sepals Lepanthes
Flower Size .4" [1 cm]
Found in Morona-Santiago province of Ecuador in cloud forests at elevations around 1800 meters as a miniature sized, cool growing, caespitose epiphyte with slender, erect ramicauls enveloped basally by 6 to 7, microscopically ciliate, lepanthiform sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, acute, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the fall on a suberect, that far surpasses the leaf, flexuous, 4" [10 cm] long, loose, successively several flowered, racemose inflorescence with half as long as to as long as the pedicel floral bracts.
Related to L elegantula but has relatively large flowers on a long, flexuous, distantly flowered racemose inflorescence that far exceed the leaf. The dorsal sepal is large and concave and has a long-acuminate tip. The synsepal is narrowly linear beyond the base terminating into a pair of acute tips and the petals are "S" shaped.
Synonyms
References * Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXIV A First Century of New Species of Stelis of Ecuador Part 1 Luer 2002 Nom inval. Drawing fide; * Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVII Dryadella and Acronia section Macrophyllae-Fasiculatae Luer 2005 in corrigenda; Flora of Ecuador No 88 Lepanthes and affiliates Dodson & Luer 2011 drawing fide
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