This lovely little cool growing Lepanthes hails from the mountains of Panama and Costa Rica where it grows at elevations of 1800 to 3000 meters. Lepanthes wendlandii boasts rather large size flowers for the genus, mine measuring about 10 mm tall but I hear it can grow even larger. Each inflorescence produces many flowers in succession, as is customary with most species in this genus. A feature I really like since it seems that once a plant starts blooming they can go on blooming more or less forever. Some do not appreciate this large genus of 800+ known species, calling their flowers “non-rewarding”, but I adore the structurally complex and colorful creations. Granted you kind of need to photograph them to fully appreciate this richness in detail, but still.
I grow it mounted on EpiWeb in the cool vivarium, slightly drier (but never dry) than most of my other Lepanthes and about medium/low light. I actually didn’t plant to grow it drier, as it enjoys rather wet conditions in-situ, but it just happened to be left in a slightly drier place in the vivarium and since it is now blooming I take it as a sign of appoval. I have another plant of this species that I grow in a wetter place, I am curious to compare the results. Time will tell.
Lepanthes wendlandii Rchb.f., Beitr. Orchid.-K. C. Amer.: 91 (1866).
