Lepanthes felis
Lepanthes felis Luer & R.Escobar, Amer. Orchid Soc. Bull. 52(12): 1264. 1983.
Type: Colombia. Antioquia: Frontino, Alto de Cuevas, alt. 2050 m. 14 May 1983. R. Escobar & E. Valencia 2605 (holotype: SEL).
Illustrated specimen: Colombia. Valle del Cauca: Municipality of El Cairo. Cerro El Inglés Nature Reserve, 2200 m. 21 November 2018. S. Vieira 052 (LCDP voucher).
Etymology: From the Latin felis, “cat”, in reference to the fancied illusion of the flower.
Lepanthes felis is an endemic species from the Western and Central Andes of Colombia. It belongs to subgenus Marsipanthes Luer, section Felinae Luer, and is distinguished by large, variably red flowers borne far beyond the tip of the leaf, concave sepals that are connate into a deep sepaline cup, a bilobed lip with triangular, obtuse lobes surrounding the column and its distinctive green petals, with an erect, thick and fleshy upper lobe and a vestigial lower lobe. It is because of the resemblance of the shiny green vertical petals inside the cup-like flower with the eyes of a cat, that this species gets its name. . .