Lepanthes pinnatula Luer & R.Escobar 1997 SUBGENUS Lepanthes SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Breves Luer 1986 SERIES Breves Luer 1996
Photos by © Esteban Dominguez Vargas and his Flickr Orchid Photo Webpage
TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer and The Epidendra Webpage
LATER 
Common Name The Little Feather Lepanthes [refers to the appendix]
Flower Size .2" [5 mm]
Found in Antioquia department of Colombia at elevations of 2680 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cold growing epiphyte with stout, erect, ramicauls enveloped by 6 to 7, minutely ciliate, lepanthiform sheaths with dilated, acuminate ostia and carrying a single, apical, erect, coricaceous, margined, purple suffused beneath, ovate, subacute, cuneate and contracted below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the later spring on a filiform, lax, .32 to .4" [8 to 10 mm] long including the .2 to .28" [5 to 7 mm] long peduncle, successively 2 to 3 flowered inflorescence arising on the back of the leaf.
"This very small species is apparently endemic in the Western Cordillera of Colombia. It is characterized by elliptical, margined leaves borne by comparatively stout ramicauls with ciliate sheaths, and a loose, few-flowered inflorescence that does not exceed the leaf. The sepals are acute and denticulate, and the laterals are single-veined. The ovate blades of the lip are not remarkable, but the elongate, pedunculated, long-ciliate appendix resembles a tiny feather." Luer & Escobar 1997
L pinnatula could be confused with the lower elevation L vieirae but L pinnatula has shortly acuminate apices to the sepals and a lip with decurved bases.
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Orquideologia Vol 20 #3 1997 drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXXII Luer 2012 drawing fide; Orchids, A Colombian Treasure Vol 3 Ortiz & Uribe 2019 drawing/photo fide;
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