Lepanthes ligiae is a large, epiphytic, caespitose orchid with coarse roots — proportions that set the species apart from every other Lepanthes documented in this book. The ramicauls are stout and erect, 14–17 cm long, enclosed by 12–13 lepanthiform sheaths that are minutely ciliate on the ribs and margins and visible as a prominent ridged structure running the length of the stem. The single leaf is erect, coriaceous and prominently veined beneath, elliptical, acute and abruptly acuminate, 7–9 cm long and 2.5–3.5 cm wide, with the rounded base contracted into a 5–7 mm petiole.

The inflorescence is a very congested, distichous, successively many-flowered raceme up to 18 mm long, borne behind the leaf by a slender peduncle 25–32 mm long; floral bracts 1–1.5 mm long; pedicels 1 mm long; ovary 2 mm long. The sepals are light yellow, carinate (keeled externally), 3-veined. The dorsal sepal is ovate-triangular, acute, 6.5 mm long and 3.5 mm wide, fused to the lateral sepals for 1 mm. The lateral sepals are ovate, oblique, subacute and shortly acuminate, 6.5 mm long and 3.25 mm wide, fused for 2 mm.

The petals are yellow with red inner edges, microscopically pubescent and transversely bilobed, 1 mm long and 4.75 mm wide, with the lobes bent inward, narrowly oblong with rounded apices, subequal in size. The lip is orange with a red outer margin, bilaminate, with the blades ovate, acute at the apex, round at the base, 1.5 mm long; the connectives broadly cuneate; the body broad, fused to the column at the base; the appendix thick, pubescent, broadly triangular, concave, with a minute incurved apical lobule. The column is stout, 1.5 mm long, with the anther dorsal and the stigma subapical.

The morphological characters described here follow Luer & Escobar (1991), as reproduced in Luer & Thoerle (2012) in Icones Pleurothallidinarum XXXII.

The published literature describes Lepanthes ligiae as an epiphyte of cloud forest in eastern Antioquia. The protologue (Luer & Escobar, 1991) cites the holotype from forest above the Colomborquídeas nursery at approximately 2,600 m elevation, with Luer's discussion noting that the species was at the time of description "known only from the forests in Antioquia around Fizebad." The species is associated with mature, undisturbed forest of the Cordillera Central at elevations near and somewhat above 2,400 m.

In La Honda, L. ligiae has been observed at approximately 2,400 m as an epiphyte on the trunks of mature trees — the only Lepanthes in the project documented with this trunk-specialist habit (every other Lepanthes sheet in the book reports twigs, branches, or rocks as the primary substrate). The trunk-habitat preference makes ecological sense for the species's stature: a plant with stout 14–17 cm ramicauls and 7–9 cm leaves needs a substantial substrate to anchor and support it, and the persistent moss cover of mature-forest tree trunks provides both the structural surface and the moisture continuity such a comparatively large epiphyte requires. L. ligiae is very rare at La Honda, with only a small number of plants observed; the photographs accompanying this sheet capture one of the documented individuals and the constellation of ramicauls fanning from a single root mass on its mossy trunk.

Lepanthes ligiae is endemic to Colombia and known only from a small number of localities in eastern Antioquia in the Cordillera Central (POWO, 2026; Luer & Escobar, 1991; Luer & Thoerle, 2012; Idárraga-Piedrahita et al., 2011).

The protologue (Luer & Escobar, 1991) cites the holotype from Antioquia, epiphytic in forest above Colomborquídeas at approximately 2,600 m — collected by R. Escobar (no. 3309) and flowered in cultivation on 16 May 1984, with the holotype illustrated by C. Luer (illustr. 10389) and deposited at MO. The protologue locality is rendered "around Fizebad" — a place name preserved as printed in the 1991 protologue, referring to the Rionegro–El Retiro area of eastern Antioquia where the Colomborquídeas nursery was historically based.

The locality cluster around Colomborquídeas places L. ligiae in a third Antioquian Lepanthes locality cluster in this book, distinct from the eastern-Antioquian Cordillera Central corridor that connects Cocorná–Carmen de Viboral and the Mesopotamia diversity centre. The Rionegro–El Retiro area sits to the southwest of La Honda; the species's documented range is small, and additional records remain rare.

The La Honda record at approximately 2,400 m sits within the documented elevational band for the species and represents one of the few known La Honda observations.

Flowering has been observed at La Honda. The available data are not yet sufficient to characterise local phenology with precision; systematic observation across a full annual cycle would be required to identify flowering peaks or quiescent periods. The very congested, successively many-flowered raceme architecture noted in the protologue means that fertile plants commonly bear flowers at successive stages of development simultaneously. The slender 25–32 mm peduncle that holds the inflorescence behind the leaf is the species's longest peduncle relative to its already large stature — a feature visible when a flowering plant is examined at close range.

Lepanthes ligiae is immediately recognisable on stature alone — no other Lepanthes in the project approaches its size, and at La Honda the species can be identified by silhouette before any floral character is examined.

Vegetatively, look for stout erect ramicauls 14–17 cm tall — three to four times the height of most miniature Lepanthes at the site — wrapped in 12–13 prominently ribbed lepanthiform sheaths and topped by a single erect, elliptical, abruptly acuminate leaf 7–9 cm long and up to 3.5 cm wide, prominently veined on the underside. The plant grows on the trunks of mature trees in well-conserved forest, often anchored by a coarse root mass to a moss-covered substrate, with multiple ramicauls fanning from a single base.

Florally, the diagnostic features are: (i) a dense, distichous, congested raceme borne behind the leaf on a slender peduncle, the inflorescence often partially concealed by the leaf in life; (ii) light yellow, carinate, 3-veined sepals, the dorsal ovate-triangular and acute, the laterals ovate-oblique and shortly acuminate; (iii) yellow petals with red inner edges, transversely bilobed, with the lobes bent inward; (iv) an orange, bilaminate lip with a red outer margin and ovate, acute blades; and (v) a thick, broadly triangular, pubescent, concave appendix that Luer flagged in the protologue as one of the species's distinguishing features.

Luer's protologue diagnosis distinguishes L. ligiae by the combination of "the congested, short-pedicellate raceme, acute sepals, narrowly oblong petals, ovate lobes of the lip, and a thick, triangular appendix." At La Honda, however, the more practical first-pass field character is simply size: any Lepanthes on the site significantly larger than ~10 cm tall, growing on a tree trunk, is most likely L. ligiae.

Lepanthes ligiae is classified as Endangered (EN) on the IUCN Red List, formally assessed in 2025 by Moreno, Vieira-Uribe and Ávila-R. The same Endangered classification applies at the national regulatory level: L. ligiae is listed in Resolución 0126 de 2024 of the Colombian Ministry of Environment as a threatened species under Colombian environmental law.

Lepanthes ligiae is — alongside L. pterygion — one of two formally Endangered species in the project's Lepanthes set. "Endangered" is the IUCN's second-highest threat category for evaluated species, applied to taxa considered to face a very high risk of extinction in the wild on the basis of rapid population decline, severely fragmented populations, or restricted distribution combined with continuing decline. For L. ligiae, the assessment criteria reflect the species's narrow Antioquian range — historically known only from the forests around the Rionegro–Colomborquídeas area — and its dependence on mature-forest tree trunks at elevations near 2,400–2,600 m, a substrate type particularly vulnerable to selective logging and forest thinning.

The species's etymology adds an editorial dimension to its conservation story. L. ligiae honours Sra. Ligia Moreno de Posada, who together with her husband Jaime Posada cultivated the species at the Colomborquídeas nursery near where it was discovered. The same horticultural and conservation institution that contributed the species's name has also helped sustain ex situ knowledge of the species through the decades when its wild populations remained poorly documented. The species's formal IUCN assessment in 2025 — co-authored by Sebastián Vieira-Uribe, who is also the verifier of this sheet — represents a long-overdue formal recognition of conservation concerns that the Colomborquídeas community had effectively been tracking informally since the species's description.

The local pattern at La Honda corroborates the EN assessment: only a small number of plants have been observed at the site, on the trunks of mature trees in well-conserved forest. Locally, persistence depends on the long-term protection of mature montane forest at approximately 2,400 m and on preventing the loss of substantial substrate trees that the species requires.

For these reasons — and to maintain consistency with the locality-redaction practice applied to the other Lepanthes sheets in this book — the specific location within La Honda where L. ligiae has been documented is not published, and precise elevation data beyond the approximate 2,400 m tier are redacted from this sheet. Requests for further locality detail from researchers or conservation practitioners with a legitimate scientific or institutional purpose may be directed to [email protected].