Lepanthopsis pygmaea C.Schweinf. 1946 SUBGENUS Lepanthopsis SECTION Lepanthopsis

TYPE Drawing by Charles Schweinfurth

LATER

Common Name The Small Lepanthopsis

Flower Size very small

Found in Haiti in cloud forests at elevations of 800 to 1200 meters as a mini-miniature sized, warm to cool growing epiphyte with very small, slender, stems enveloped completely by 4, close, tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical, terminal, elliptic to oval, rounded apically, fleshy, minutely denticulate margins above the middle, more or less cuneate at the minutely petiolate base leaf that blooms in the later spring on an erect, solitary, to 1" [2.5 cm] long, shortly pedunculate, provided with 2 to 3, inconspicuous, remote, tubular sheaths, rachis spreading to decurved, densely to 13 flowered inflorescence with minute, tubular floral bracts.

"The flowers are almost identical to Lepanthopsis culiculosa but L pygmaea is identified by the very small habit with a dense raceme of minute flowers in two ranks borne by a peduncle that barely surpasses the leaf in length. The margins of some of the leaves exhibit the minute denticulations seen in many Pleurothallids from Hispanola. Vegetatively L pygmaea is half the size of L culiculosa. The sepals of both species are ovate, pnly a little more than .04" [1 mm] long and the rounded cordate lip has an inverted "U:" Shaped callus at the base." Luer 1991

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; *AOS Bulletin Vol 14 # 5 1946 drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum VIII Systematics of Lepanthospsis, Octomeria subgenus Pleurothallopsis, Restrepiella, Salpistele and Teagueia Luer 1991 drawing/photo fide;

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------