Lepanthes johnsonii Ames 1923 SUBGENUS Lepanthes SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes Photos courtesy of Franco Pupulin.©

EARLY

Common Name Johnson's Lepanthes [American Orchid Collector in Guatemala 1900's]

Flower Size .4" [1 cm]

Found in Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Nicaragua and Costa Rica in premontane rain forest to cloud forest and disturbed primary forests at elevations of 700 to 2100 meters as a mini-miniature sized, hot to cool growing epiphyte with erect ramicauls enveloped completely by several infundibuliform, finely hispidous lepanthiform sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptic, round and retuse apically, abruptly narrowing below into the petiolate base leaf blooms in the fall and early winter on a basal, successively few flowered inflorescence that is longer than the leaf, has a bract in the middle and has only a single flower at any one time.

This species is very similar to L edwardsii and was separated on the basis of the larger petals in relation to the sepals and lip and by the purple color of the flowers.

Synonyms Lepanthes johnsonii subsp. costaricensis Pupulin 2001; Lepanthes johnsonii subsp. johnsonii.

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Lankester's Epidendra Website CR CHECKED Type OK; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 1025 Hamer/Dodson 1984 drawing fide; El Genero Lepanthes En Mexico Salazar * Soto 1996 drawing/photo good but in both the drawing and the photos the petals are much larger in relation to the sepals than in the Costa Rican specimens which is now known as L johnsonii var costaricensis

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