Lepanthes ruberrima Pupulin 2012 SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Elongatae 1993
Photo by © Franco Pupulin.
TYPE Drawing by Carl Luer
Common Name The Deep Brick Red Lepanthes [refers to the flower color]
Flower Size .4" [1 cm]
Found in Costa Rica at elevations around 1160 to 1245 meters as a mini-miniature sized, warm to cool, erect to pendent growing epiphyte with pendent to erect ramicauls enveloped by 3, tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical, pendent to erect, thinly coriaceous, elliptic, obtuse, minutely tridenticulate apically, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the spring on 1 to 2, filiform, loose, distichous, .6 to 1.28" [1.5 to 3.2 cm] long including the .06" [to 1.5 cm] long peduncle, fractiflex, successively single, several [11] flowered inflorescence arising on the top or the back side of the leaf.
"Originally described as a subspecies of Lepanthes johnsonii, a species ranging from Mexico to Guatemala, L. ruberrima is here recognized at specific rank on the basis of consistent morphological differences between the two taxa. The sheaths of the ramicauls of L. ruberrima are glabrous (vs. hispidulous in L. johnsonii), the leaf is distinctly shorter (less than .32" [8 mm] vs. more than .4" [10 mm], the lateral sepals form a broadly ovate, bifid lamina with acute apices (vs. lateral sepals with the lobes distinctly caudate), and the petals have the upper lobe triangular-rounded (vs. narrowly triangular, acute). Furthermore, the flowers of L. ruberrima are completely red-purple, while those of L. johnsonii vary from pink to yellow, with the tails of the sepals suffused with rose-purple, the petals usually purple, and the laminae of the lip yellow, flushed with red only at the bases." Pupulin 2012
Synonyms Lepanthes johnsonii subsp. costaricensis Pupulin 2001
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Harvard Pap. Bot. 6(1): 2912001 as L johnsonii var costaricensis drawing fide; Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica Vol 3 Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003 as Lepanthes johnsonii subsp. costaricensis; * Orchid Digest 76: 25 Pupulin 2012 drawing/photo fide; *Anales del Jardín Botánico de Madrid 71(1): e001 2014 photo/drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 84 #7 Karremans & Jimenez 2015; Vanishing Beauty; Native Costa Rican Orchids Vol 2 Lacaena to Pteroglossa Pupulin 2020 photo fide;
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