Lepanthes mastix Luer & Hirtz 1987 SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Elongatae 1993 Photos by Ecuagenera and their Ecuador Orchid Website
Common Name or Meaning The Whip Lepanthes [refers to the long flexible inflorescence]
Flower Size .2" [5mm]
Found in Ecuador in cloud forests at elevations aound 3100 to 3450 meters as a small sized, cold growing epiphyte with stout, erect ramicauls enveloped by 6 to 13, dark brown, close, hispid, lepanthiform sheaths and carrying a single, apical, suberect, thinly coriaceous, narrowly ovate, acuminate, acute, the base cuneate into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the spring on a slender, loose, flexible, lightly flexuous, successively many flowered, to 14" [to 35 cm] long inflorescence.
CAUTION I have my doubts as to the veracity of this determination. In general it fits but Luer says it has dark red flowers, obviously not, and there is no mention of the bowed flower [that could be a cultural issue] and lastly the lip seems a bit different but it is not the most vsible either, so please use with caution.
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XIV Luer 1996 drawing hmm; Flora of Ecuador No 88 Lepanthes and affiliates Dodson & Luer 2011 drawing hmm
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