Baños (370 km N of Tapichalaca)

Baños is where I live, and is my main study area. I have found three forms of L. nummularia here. Two forms with thick columns are very similar except for their lip: a large appressed lip that goes all the way to the stigma in the form I shall call Form F (most similar to Form A of Tapichalaca), and a small hanging lip whose tip is far from the stigma in the form I have called Form E (most like Form B or Form C of Tapichalaca). I think Forms E and F are different from each other, because their differences are consistent (though they do show some variation) and both grow together. The third form here is the same as Form D from Tapichalaca, the one with the skinny column and disproportionately large anther. All three forms are sympatric on some mountains.

The photos below show two examples of Form F from two different mountains, and two of Form E from two different mountains. Though they look extremely similar from the front, the lateral views show significant differences in lip structure between the two forms. These differences are consistent; the two examples of each form shown below came from different mountains, yet each example of Form F has the same long lip appressed to the column, and each example of Form E has a short hanging lip.Note also the difference in size; all photos are reproduced at the same scale.

Form F from Cerro Abitagua in the banos area
Form F from Cerro Mayordomo
Form E from Cerro Abitagua in the banos area
Form E from Cordillera Garcia Moreno
Form F from Cerro Abitagua in the banos area
Form F from Cerro Mayordomo
Form E from Cerro Abitagua in the banos area
Form E from Cordillera Garcia Moreno

 

    Form D from Tapichalaca also grows here in Baños, where I have seen two examples. I collected one of them on Cerro Abitagua, and my student Stella Copeland collected the other about five kilometers away. It is interesting to see the differences between these two examples; one has long column lobes beneath the anther while the other has short lobes like the one from Tapichalaca. Clearly this species, like the other forms discussed here, show a lot of individual variation. This is why they have caused such taxonomic problems. Below are the two individuals of Form D from Baños, along with the one from Tapichalaca at right.
Form D from Baños (left and center) and from Tapichalaca (right).

 

Contents

Introduction and Tapichalaca Forms of Lepanthes nummularia

Forms from the Paute-Mendez Road (230 km N of Tapichalaca)

Forms from Banos (370 km N of Tapichalaca)

Forms from Sumaco-Galeras National Park (460 km N of Tapichalaca)

Forms from La Bonita, near Colombian border (550 km N of Tapichalaca)

Forms from Los Cedros, in the western Andes (530 km N of Tapichalaca)

Conclusions