This miniature species is from Columbia. It grows about 5-6 cm tall and has flowers that are quite large for
Lepanthes, a little less than 1 cm in size. The single leaves are held on wiry stems and the flowers arise from the base of the leaf on short, thread-like spikes. Under good light the leaves are have a reddish color with darker veining, forming a very attractive little clump..
Lepanthes belongs to a genus of orchids called Pleurothallids, many of them high altitude plants. This plant, therefore, does best in cooler temperatures and high humidity and since it continues to produces flowers from the same leaf it is almost always in bloom. The plant was described for the first time and is named for Andrea Niessen, a Colombian collector and grower.
I just love this niesseniae. I have one that is slowly recovering from dehydration during shipment. I am very surprised to see that you have a good size plant in bloom as early as 2010. It was only officially described a little before that. Your pics of it are great as usual, but it is really something in person.
ReplyDeleteI gave what was left of it to a friend to try and revive. I'll have to try it again, though.
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