Lepanthes amplisepala Luer & R.Escobar 1994 SUBGENUS Lepanthes SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Lepanthes Side View of flower
Plant and Flowers in situ Cauca Colombia
Photos by © David Haelterman and his Flickr Orchid Photo Website
TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer and the Epidendra Website
Common Name or Meaning The Large Sepal Lepanthes
Flower Size .4" [1 cm]
Found in Cauca department of Colombia in scrubby cloud forests at elevations around 3150 to 3200 meters as a miniature sized, cold, scandent growing epiphyte with slender, erect ramicauls enveloped by 8 to 9, minutely ciliate, lepanthiform sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, ellipical, acute, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the fall on a loose, strict, secund, 6.8" [17 cm] long including the 1.2 to 1.6" [3 to 4 cm] long peduncle, successively single, many flowered inflorescence with oblique floral bracts and holding the large, thin, bright purple flower well above the leaf.
This species is closest to L illex but L ampisepala is prolific in habit and has a lip with minutely ciliate blades and a minute, oblong appendix.
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; *Orquideología Vol 19 #2 pg 77 Luer & Escobar 1994 drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXXI1 2012 drawing fide; Orchids A Colombian Treasure Vol 3 Ortiz & Uribe 2019 drawing fide/photo not = L. illex;
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