Lepanthes nitida Luer & Hirtz 2009 SUBGENUS Lepanthes SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Lepanthes

TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer and Selbyana 30: 10 Luer & Escobar 2009

LATE EARLY

Common Name The Shiny Lepanthes [refers to the brrown shiny sepals]

Flower Size .2" [5 mm]

Found in Zamora-Chinchipe province of Ecuador at elevations around 2500 meters as a miniature to small sized, cold growing epiphyte with erect, slender ramicauls enveloped by 8 to 13, microscopically scabrous, lepanthiform sheaths and carrying a single, apical, thinly coriaceous, erect, elliptical-oblong, obtuse, abruptly acuminate, abruptly contracted below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the late summer and early fall on an erect, borne on top of the leaf, peduncle filiform, .6 to 1" [1.5 to 2.5 cm] long, rachis .32" [8 mm] long, congested, distichous, successively single, many flowered inflorescence with shorter than the pedicel floral bracts.

"This species, known only from a plant from southeastern Ecuador, possesses a combination of floral features that are found in other species of the genus. It is characterized by straight, slender ramicauls, and a very congested raceme borne on top of an oblong, abruptly acuminate leaf. The sepals are shiny brown, glabrous and acute. The upper lobes of the petals are oblong and turned outward 45°; the lower lobes are narrowly acuminate; the blades of the lip are oblong and slope upward; and the oblong appendix is pubescent." Luer 2009

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Selbyana 30: 10 Luer & Escobar 2009 Drawing fide; Orchids A Colombian Treasure Vol 3 Ortiz & Uribe 2019 photo fide;

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