I love Lepanthes. No, I adore Lepanthes! This huge genus is packed full with amazing little gems, like this one. The flower of Lepanthes meniscophora measure no more than 5 mm, which at its minuscule size is about average for this genus. Still, the intense color and details are no less impressive, a bit of a shame you have to break out the macro gear to really appreciate it though. Another really nice quality of many Lepanthes is the successive flowering habit, producing flower after flower neatly perched on top of each leaf like a small butterfly. It seems that once they start blooming they can go on forever, but I kind of missed the big fireworks earlier this summer when this one was completely covered in flowers. Now only a few inflorescences are still at it, but it is lovely none the less. Endemic to northwestern Ecuador it is a cool growing epiphyte found at 2 100 to 2 500 meters. I grow it mounted, intermediate to cool and very humid.
Lepanthes meniscophora Luer & Hirtz 1996.
