Lepanthes athena

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

At least, this is the name that it was sold to me under. It is usually very difficult to authenticate the species name of certain species of Lepanthes partly because of how small the flowers are, and also because of how certain species will look similar to other species.

With that said, from what I gather of image searches on the internet, the plant I own appears not to be the true Lepanthes athena. (or Lepanthes athenna, not sure which spelling is correct, quite frankly). It seems to be a similar looking species to the true Lepanthes athena/Lepanthes athenna.

I should probably call it Lepanthes aff. athena or just plain, Lepanthes sp.

The reason I say this is because the photo of the flower described as Lepanthes athena in the IOSPE does not look like the flower in my photo. The major differences being that the flower on my plant has petals that intersect at the apex/top, whereas the apex/top of the petals on the flower for the plant in the IOSPE photo do not intersect at all. My flower does not have sharp appendages on the apex of the petals, whereas the flower in the IOSPE photo has petals where the apices have sharp appendages on them. On my flower, the inferior/bottom portion of the petals have long, thin, sharp tails that meet in the middle/medially; the flower in the IOSPE photo has tails on the bottom portion of the petals that curve away from each other. The shape of the lip do not match either.

So, yeah, it is very likely I don't have a true Lepanthes athena, or the flower pictured in the IOSPE does not belong to what was taxonomically described as the true Lepanthes athena/Lepanthes athenna.

Here's the link to the IOSPE photo for what Jay Pfahl calls Lepanthes athena:

IOSPE PHOTOS

At any rate, the flower on the plant I own is still incredibly cute, imo.

It is not a true miniature. This plant is about 6" - 7" tall. Flower is only 1 cm tall.

Again, I don't have a true macro lens to take photos with, and this is a photo using my camera phone, so the picture quality isn't going to be spectacular, but I'm sure you guys can see what's going on.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Photo of the flower I own from another angle.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Here's the plant. If you look very closely, you will see the flower.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

These are what new growths on a Lepanthes look like. There are 3 stages of development seen. The smallest growth is just peeking out of the potting media. The next largest is about 1/2 inch tall. The largest new shoot is obscured by the mature growths, but it is about 2.25" tall.

[Tindomul]

Thats a nice one.
The differences are pretty obvious and big! At the same time it looks like a close relation to L. athenna. I wish I had the Icones pleurothallidinarum to help you out.