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Restrepia sanguinea
Icones Colombianae 3

Restrepia sanguinea

Restrepia sanguinea Rolfe, Bull. Misc. Inform. Kew 1896: 44. 1894

Type: Colombia. Without collection data. Flowered in cultivation Nov. 1895 by Messrs. Charlesworth & Co. s.n. (holotype: K).

Illustrated specimen: Colombia. Antioquia: La Ceja. Trees along the banks of the Piedras River on the road to Abejorral, 2140 m. 20 July 2018. S. Vieira 032, L. F. Pérez (LCDP Voucher).

Restrepia sanguinea Rolfe is apparently endemic to the highland areas near Medellin, Antioquia, and is not easily differentiated from other medium to large sized species; its main distiguishing characters being the crimson flowers with yellow blotches at the base of the column, the violet-red lateral sepals with stripes of rows of crimson dots and with a marginal whitish area near the base, and the peduncles slightly longer than half the length of the leaf.

A specimen with the same locality data as the one illustrated here, from the Piedras river at La Ceja, was designated by Luer & Restrepo (1996) as neotype of this species due to the poor quality of the extant type material. However, as part of the original material still exists, a neotype cannot be designated…