Lepanthes kayi Baquero, 2018

Lepanthes kayi Baquero View in CoL , sp. nov. Figs. 1 View FIGURE 1 , 2 View FIGURE 2 .

Type:— ECUADOR. Carchi, near Río Baboso community , November 2016, Baquero 3101 (holotype: QCNE!) .

Diagnosis:— Lepanthes kayi is similar to Lepanthes saltatrix in habit and flowers but differs in the smaller plants and heavily undulate margins of the leaves versus bigger plants and lightly to absent undulation of the leaf margins in the later, the three-lobed lip and the oblong oblique lower lobe of the petals versus the transversely ovate lower lobe of the petals and the bilobed, shallowly retuse lip in L. saltatrix .

Plant medium in size for the genus, epiphytic, caespitose; roots slender. Ramicauls erect to suberect, slender, 2–4 cm long, enclosed by 5–6 minutely ciliate, lepanthiform sheaths. Leaf thinly coriaceous, green, with red-brown reticulation, cordate, 15–25mm × 10–15mm, the margins undulate. Inflorescence a congested, distichous, successively several-flowered raceme up to 10 mm long, borne on top of the leaf by a filiform peduncle 3─ 7 mm long; floral bracts 0.6 mm; pedicels 1.5 mm long; 0.4 mm long; dorsal sepal 3 veined, yellow translucent with dark pink towards the base, reflexed, broadly ovate, obtuse, shortly acuminate-acute, carinate, with the margins sparsely ciliate, 3.2 mm × 2.9 mm, free from the lateral sepals; lateral sepals yellow translucent, dark pink towards the base, 3 veined, reflexed, oblique, ovate, shortly acuminate-acute, carinate, 3 mm long, 2 mm wide, connate 0.5 mm; petals transversely bilobed, upper lobe red pink in the lower part, orange-yellow towards the apex, minutely pubescent, with acute apex long-acuminate, 0.8 mm long, 5.2 mm wide the lower lobe obliquely oblong 2.9 mm long, the obtuse apex abruptly contracted into a filamentous tail 2.3 mm long lip 3 lobed, 2 lateral sub-quadrate, yellow suffused with orange and covered with cilia in the lower margins, the central, sub-quadrate lobe, shallowly-longitudinally grooved along the middle, with the tip emarginated and concave, orange, oblong, 2.5 mm wide, 1.7 mm long column 1 mm long, the anther and stigma apical

Distribution: — Lepanthes kayii is known from a single population of about ten plants in south-west Carchi, close to Río Baboso found at 850 m in elevation, next to a small stream in a remnant of tropical forest. No other species of Lepanthes were seen growing nearby. One of the plants had been pollinated and was forming a seedpod.

Etymology: —Named after Andreas Kay who discovered and photographed plants and flowers of L. kayii in the site where the only known population exists.

Discussion: —This species is most similar to Lepanthes saltatrix Luer & Hirtz (1996: 150) , photographic comparison as well an illustration is provided ( Figs. 1 View FIGURE 1 , 2 View FIGURE 2 , 3 View FIGURE 3 ). Similar to what happens between L. calodictyon and L. tentaculata , some differences in the flowers, as well as in the plants helps to recognize between species. All the plants from the only known population of L. kayii which were seen in flower, shared the same features in the flowers and the ones without flowers shared the same type of plants with the rest of the population. The cordate leaves in L. kayii are narrower and shorter than the leaves in L. saltatrix , the margins of the leaves in L. saltatrix are rarely ondulate while in L. kayii they have have clear undulations at the margins. Comparing the flowers between the two species; L. kayii has substantially smaller flowers than L. saltatrix , being 6 to 6.3 mm in length from the tip of the dorsal sepal to the tips of the lateral sepals in compared to flowers of 10 mm or more in L. saltatrix . The lateral sepals in L. kayii have basal dark pink pigmentation while in L. saltatrix no obvious pigmentation is seen. The petals in L. kayii have very slender oblique lower lobes and gradually acuminate upper lobes with a visible distance between them, different to the much broader, horizontal lower petal lobes in L. saltatrix and broad superposed upper lobes which abruptly end in filamentous, long tails, ( Fig. 3 View FIGURE 3 ). Also, the three lobed lip with cilia in the lower margins of the two lateral lobes, with two convex ridges at the middle of the lip versus the two-lobed, slightly truncate lip in L. saltatrix and the much shorter column in L. kayii are, also, clear differences between L. kayii and L. saltatrix ( Fig. 3 View FIGURE 3 ). These features have kept consistent on plants grown ex situ for more than a year from both species.