Lepanthes tulcanensis Baquero & Monteros 2020 SUBGENUS Marsipanthes SECTION Marisipanthes
LCDP Photo/TYPE drawing by © Francisco Tobar and Phytokeys 180: 111–132 2021
Common Name The Tulcan Lepanthes [A township near where the species is distributed]
Flower Size .4" [1 cm]
Found in Carchi provinces of Ecuador in montane forests low on tree trunks at elevations around 2000 meters as a medium sized, cold growing epiphyte with slender, arcuate to horizontal, elongated, thin, 6 to 13 noded ramicauls enveloped completely by long-acuminate, coarse, apiculate at the margins, loose lepanthiform sheaths and carrying a single, apical, arcuate to pendulous, green suffused with purple, thinly coriaceous, conduplicate and reticulate, ovate, the base slightly cuneate and contracted below into a shortly petiolate base leaf that blooms at most any time of the year on 1 to several, on top of the leaf, slender, .8 to 1.6" [2 to 4 cm] long peduncle, congested, up to 1.2 to 2" [3 to 5 cm] long overall, successively single, many-flowered inflorescence with oblique, acuminate, shorter than the ovary floral bracts.
"Lepanthes tulcanensis is a member of subgenus Marsipanthes considering the dorsal sepal with seven veins and lateral sepals with more than four veins -eight in total-, thick and fleshy petals, the bilobed lip without blades, the shallowly cupped flowers and the inflorescence with a long peduncle and congested raceme which rests on the adaxial side of the leaf. This species is, perhaps, the most atypical species of the subgenus Marsipanthes since it is a much larger plants (close to 16" [40 cm], including the leaf) and bigger leaves (with a long acuminate apex) than any other member of the subgenus. From a distance, L. tulcanensis resembles L. rhodopylla Schltr. < due to the large plants with dark, reticulated, acuminate leaves. Nevertheless, the flowers are completely different not only from L. rhodopylla but from any other species in the genus, based on the inflorescence which is born at the adaxial side of the leaf, the dorsal sepal with 5 veins, and 8-veined synsepal, the bilobed lip without blades, the shallowly cupped flowers and the fleshy petals." Tobar , Lopex, Gavilanes, Monteros, Garcia and Graham 2021
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * LANKESTERIANA 20(3): 331–338 A NEW TALL AND EXCEPTIONAL SPECIES OF LEPANTHES FROM NORTH-WEST ECUADOR (ORCHIDACEAE: PLEUROTHALLIDINAE Baquero & Monteros 2020. Drawing/photo fide
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