Octomeria lilliputana is a species of flowering plant in the family Orchidaceae. It is an epiphyte with fleshy leaves, and rose-coloured sepals and petals. The species is native to southern Brazil, and listed in Appendix II of CITES.
Octomeria lilliputana was described in 2013, and named after the fiction island of Lilliput.
Taxonomy The species was named by Wellington Forster, Fábio de Barros, and Vinicius Castro Souza in 2013.
Distribution Octomeria lilliputana is native to the wet tropical biome of Paraná, southern Brazil. It is known only from its type locality, in Marumbi Peak State Park. The species grows in primary rainforests.
Description Octomeria lilliputana is an epiphytic herb around tall. The stem is long, and encased by two or three thin sheaths.
The leaf is fleshy, narrowly elliptical to linear-elliptical, long, and wide. The leaf margin is smooth. The leaf lacks a stem.
The inflorescence is a fascicle with one or two flowers. The inflorescence stem is cylindrical, and long. The flowers are in an inverted position because the stem is twisted 180°. The flower stem is around long. The ovary is around long.
The sepals are rose-coloured and translucent. The sepals have three veins, and a smooth margin. The dorsal sepal is slightly concave, narrowly elliptical, around long, and around wide. The lateral sepals are slightly concave, lanceolate and slightly sickle-shaped, long, and around wide. The petals are rose coloured, flat, around long, around wide, and have three veins. The petals are elliptical to narrowly lanceolate, and have a smooth margin. The lip is slightly fleshy, around long, and has three lobes. The column is whitish-rose, slender, and around long. The lip is hinged to the column foot. Flowering specimens have been collected in October.
Octomeria lilliputana is similar to Octomeria cochlearis, Octomeria montana, Octomeria ochroleuca, and Octomeria rhodoglossa.
Conservation Octomeria lilliputana is listed in Appendix II of CITES. There are no quotas or suspensions in place for the species.
Etymology The specific epithet lilliputana refers to Lilliput, a fictional island with very small inhabitants, that appears in the novel Gulliver's Travels.
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