''Lepanthes'' (from
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
"scaled-flower") is a large
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...
of
orchid
Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant.
Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowering ...
s with about 800–1000
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
, distributed in the
Antilles
The Antilles (; gcf, label=Antillean Creole, Antiy; es, Antillas; french: Antilles; nl, Antillen; ht, Antiy; pap, Antias; Jamaican Patois: ''Antiliiz'') is an archipelago bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the south and west, the Gulf of Mex ...
and from
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
through
Bolivia
, image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg
, flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center
, flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...
(with very few species in
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
).
[Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families](_blank)
/ref> The genus is abbreviated in horticultural trade as Lths. Almost all the species in the genus are small and live in cloud forest
A cloud forest, also called a water forest, primas forest, or tropical montane cloud forest (TMCF), is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, montane, moist forest characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud c ...
s. Babyboot orchid is a common name.
See also
*''Draconanthes
''Draconanthes'' (from Greek, "dragon flower") is a genus of orchids, comprising two species. These have rigid, fleshy sepals and fleshy petals with a thick lip, and are borne on successively flowered racemes. One species is endemic to Ecuador, ...
''
* List of ''Lepanthes'' species
*List of the largest genera of flowering plants
There are over 56 genera of flowering plants estimated to contain at least 500 described species. The largest of these is currently the legume genus ''Astragalus'' (milk-vetches), with over 3,000 species.
The sizes of plant genera vary widely fr ...
References
* (1799) Nova Acta Regiae Societatis Scientiarum Upsaliensis 6: 85, f. 6.
* (2006) Epidendroideae (Part One). Genera Orchidacearum 4: 362 ff. Oxford University Press.
* (2009) Icones Pleurothallidinarum XXX. Monographs in Systematic Botany from the Missouri Botanical Garden 115: 1-265.
External links
*
*
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1955302
Pleurothallidinae genera
Taxa named by Olof Swartz