Lepanthes ophioglossa Luer 1983 SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Elongatae 1993
Photos courtesy of Weyman Bussey, plant grown by Judy Carney
TYPE drawing by © Carl Luer
Common Name The Snake Tongued Lepanthes [refers to the forked apex of the bilabiate flower]
Flower Size .4" [1 cm]
Found in Ecuador in cloud forestsat elevations of 1500 to 2300 meters as a small sized, cool to cold growing epiphyte with slender, erect, ramicauls enveloped by 4 to 6, minutely ciliate-scabrous, lepanthiform sheaths carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, obtuse, leaf with the base cuneate into a long petiole that blooms in the spring and summer on a loose, flexuous, 3.6" [9 cm] long, successively several flowered, racemose inflorescence with the proportionately large flowers held well above the leaf.
"Related to L corkyae and L schizix but L opioglossa is distinguished by the loose flexous raceme longer than the small, elliptical leaf and a proportionally large flowers witha broad, minimally concave dorsal sepal with a slender recurved tail. The sepals are minutely ciliate and the synsepal is oblong terminated by a pair of shorter adjacent tails." Luer 1996
Synonyms Lepanthes drymocharis Luer & Hirtz 1993
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Phytologia Vol 54 #5 pg 358 Luer 1983; Novon 3: 447 Luer 1993 as L drymocharis drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XIV Systematics of Draconanthes, Lepanthes subgenus Marsipanthes and subgenus Lepanthes of Ecuador Luer 1996 drawing fide; Flora of Ecuador No 88 Lepanthes and affiliates Dodson & Luer 2011 drawing fide;
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