Lepanthes elusiva Bogarín, Kaes & M.Díaz 2019 SUBGENUS Lepanthes SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Lepanthes
TYPE Photo/TYPE Drawing by Diego Bogarin and Orchidee, Taxon. Mitt. 5(3): 24 2019: Lepanthes elusiva – a New Species of Lepanthes (Orchidaceae: Pleurothallidinae) from Tapantí Area in Cartago, Costa Rica Bogarin, Kaes and Diaz-Morales
Common Name The Elusive Lepanthes [referring to the fact that this species remained evasive until its recent discovery despite the extensive orchid exploration in the area of Tapantí]
Flower Size >2" [5 mm]
Found in Costa Rica on the Cordillera de Talamanca in secondary forests in shady areas of very wet montane forests at elevations around 1430 meters as a mini-miniature sized, caespitose, suberect to pendent, cool growing epiphyte with slender, pendent, ramicauls enveloped by 5 to 7 glabrous, lepanthiform sheaths with minutely ciliate, ovate, acuminate and slightly dilated ostia and carrying a single, apical, sub-coriaceous, ovate to elliptic, acute, emarginate, with a short apiculus, with purple beneath and along the margins, narrowing and rounded below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the late fall on a shorter than the leaves, on top of the leaf, peduncle .36" [9 mm] long, rachis .56" [1.4 cm] long, racemose, distichous, glabrous, successively single, to 17 flowered inflorescence with ovate, acuminate, conduplicate, membranaceous, muriculate, persistent, shorter than the pedicels floral bract.
"Lepanthes elusiva resembles L. regularis, however, it differs in the denticulate sepals (vs. entire), the ovate, subfalcate lobes of petals (vs. oblong, erect), and the lower lobes of the lip which are superimposed (vs. separated, not overlapping). The lip of Lepanthes elusiva resembles the lip of L. elvirae with its broad laminae extending far from the column apex, however, it differs from that species mainly by the ovate to elliptic leaves (vs. broadly elliptic) and the oblong lobes of petals (vs. ovate or obovate)." Bogarin, Kaes and Diaz-Morales 2019
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Orchidee, Taxon. Mitt. 5(3): 24 2019: Lepanthes elusiva – a New Species of Lepanthes (Orchidaceae: Pleurothallidinae) from Tapantí Area in Cartago, Costa Rica Bogarin, Kaes and Diaz-Morales Drawing/photos fide; Orchid Digest Vol 83 #4 2019 Photo fide;
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