Lepanthes silvae H.Dietr. 1988 SUBGENUS Lepanthes SECTION Lepanthes SUBSECTION Lepanthes SERIES Lepanthes
Older flower changed to brown red
Photos by © Julio Larramendi
Drawing by © Carl Luer
TYPE Drawing of L minima-mundana by © Carl Luer and Lindleyana Vol 13 #3 pg 142 Luer 1998
Common Name Silva's Lepanthes
Flower Size .06" 1.5 mm]
Found in northeastern Cuba in moist forests at elevations around 700 meters as a mini-miniature sized [one of the smallest in the genus], caespitose, warm growing epiphyte with an erect ramicaul enveloped by 2, thin, microscopically scabrous lepanthiform sheaths and carrying a single, apical, thickly coriaceous, obovate-spathulate to suborbicular, marginate, tridenticulate, cuneate below into the subsessile base leaf that blooms at any time of the year on a filiform, about as long as the leaf, .08" [2 mm] long, successively single, several flowered inflorescence with tubular, shorter than the pedicel floral bracts and carrying flowers that open yellow and become purplish red with age.
"Characterized by ramicauls less than .08" [2 mm] long with equally thick roots. The leaves are thick and round, between .12 to .16" [3 to 4 mm] long and wide, The congested, successively flowered inflorescnece eventually surpasses the leaf. The sepals are ovate and obtuse and the lobes of the petals are narrow from an obtusely angled base. The blades of the lip are ovate with broad connectives above the middle with the body connate to the column near the middle" Luer 1998
Synonyms Lepanthes minima-mundana Luer 1998
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Lindleyana Vol 13 #3 pg 142 Luer 1998 as L minima-mundana drawing fide; Orchidaceae Antillanae Nir 2000; The Orchids of Cuba Llamacho and Larramendi 2005 photo fide; Orchid Flora of the Greater Antilles Ackerman 2014 drawing fide;
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