New Lepanthes species

During the first trip that I arranged for Pathfinder Travels to Costa Rica, we were walking down from the main ridge on Cerro Echandi to our  base camp. At around 2550 meters I saw tiny Lepanthes leafs on a small oaktree that were growing on a very steep slope. Me and Daniel realized quickly that it´s a new species. The plants, about 1o of them were growing 40 – 100 cm up on the trunk, from the ground level.

Here you can see the first pictures I took of this Lepanthes species. It´s now at the Lankester Botanical Gardens in Costa Rica.

 

The new Lepanthes sp. Here compared to a finger.

New Lepanthes sp. Cerro Echandi 2550 meters.

New Lepathes sp.

Cerro Echandi seen here from the summit of Cerro Chai. We had our basecamp were the first branch of the tree (lower right in the picture) touches the ridge. The same ridge were we found the new Lepanthes sp.

Untouched rainforest on the lower slopes of Cerro Echandi.