Lepanthe species from PR, maybe rubripetala

Ricardo in PR · #1 01-06-2010, 07:36 PM

Last year I spent some time hiking in the rainforest that covers the upper reaches of the Sierra de Luquillo mountains. I saw many orchids, most without flowers, but there were a number of Lepanthes blooming. Most of the Lepanthes I photographed turned out to be Lepanthes woodburiana. But this plant appears to be a different species. The crossed over petals seem to indicate that this plant is Lepanthes rubripetala. But since this is the only one I have ever found, and doing a taxonomic key from a photograph can be difficult the ID remains tentative. Photos of this orchid apparently are not common as I didn't found anything on an Internet search. To my chagrin, queries about photos of rubripetala in the Internet send me to my own album

. On the other hand it may be a natural hybrid for all I know.

raybark · #2 01-06-2010, 08:53 PM

Reminds me of peach slices on a hot, summer day.

Tio Super · #3 01-07-2010, 12:09 PM

Ricardo : a comparison with Montalvo's line darwings in Ackerman's book strongly suggests you are right in calling it Lepanthes rubripetala.

Kathy-WPalmBeach · #4 01-07-2010, 12:20 PM

Ray I like your simile - how appropriate!

Jose - nice to see you!

Tio Super · #5 01-07-2010, 12:41 PM

Same here... I am slowly returning to posting in my olde house

Kathy-WPalmBeach · #6 01-07-2010, 12:54 PM

yes, you were the first to post at the original AOS forum!

Ricardo in PR · #7 01-07-2010, 02:58 PM

Thanks Jose! I try to ID the plants I find out in the wild using taxonomic keys but sometimes it is difficult to be sure that you have the right ID. Happily this plant is growing on a tree by the roadside in a fairly easy spot to reach so I am planning to return to the spot to try to take a better photo.