Lepanthes tibouchinicola is a small-to-medium, tufted epiphytic orchid with fine roots and slender, erect secondary stems (ramicauls) 1–3 cm long, enclosed by three to four close, microscopically scabrous lepanthiform sheaths — the characteristic fringed, funnel-shaped sheaths of the genus. Each ramicaul bears a single erect, leathery, narrowly elliptical leaf, 2–3.5 cm long and 0.3–0.5 cm wide, with an acute tip and a narrowly cuneate base tapering into a short subpetiole.

The inflorescence is a progressively lengthening, secund (one-sided), sublaxly many-flowered raceme up to 23 cm long including the comparatively stout peduncle of 5–7 cm, with two or three flowers open simultaneously and a characteristic pattern of a fading flower below and several developing buds above. The floral bracts are 3 mm long, pedicels 1.5 mm, and the ovary 1.5 mm long. The sepals are bright yellow to orange, often suffused with brown toward the base, with minutely irregular margins: the dorsal sepal is glabrous, transversely ovate with an obtuse apex acuminate into a slender caudal tail, 13 mm long including the cauda and 6 mm wide, 3-veined, fused to the lateral sepals for 2.5 mm; the lateral sepals are minutely pubescent and fused for 5 mm into a concave, ovate, acute, bifid synsepal, 16 mm long including the long-acuminate apices and 7 mm wide, each 2-veined. The petals are minute, orange, and transversely bilobed, 0.5 mm long and 1.5 mm wide, with a minute tooth on the outer margin — the upper lobe oblong and broadly obtuse, the lower lobe smaller, triangular, and narrowly obtuse. The lip is dull purple, with narrowly ovate, convex blades 1 mm long, minutely pubescent, their ends rounded; the narrow body is connate to the base of the column, with an oblong, apiculate, glabrous appendix. The column is stout, 1 mm long, with a dorsal anther and a ventral stigma. The specific epithet refers to Tibouchina Aubl., the melastomaceous genus whose species, according to Luer & Escobar (1983), "is apparently the specific host for this species of Lepanthes."

Flower characteristics at a glance: the flower is bright yellow to orange, often suffused with brown toward the sepaline base, measuring approximately 16 mm across the synsepal — relatively large for a miniature Lepanthes. The dorsal sepal carries a slender tail that visually elongates the flower by several millimeters. In contrast with the conspicuous sepals, the petals and lip are minute — the orange petals only 0.5 × 1.5 mm and the dull-purple lip barely 1 mm long, partly concealed behind the sepaline cup. The successively-flowering raceme produces two or three flowers simultaneously, with older flowers fading below as new buds open above, a sequence that prolongs the flowering display on an individual plant.

The morphological characters described here follow Luer & Escobar (1983); the description is reproduced with minor modernization by Luer & Thoerle (2012) in Icones Pleurothallidinarum XXXII.

Lepanthes tibouchinicola shows a remarkable degree of host specialisation. According to the protologue (Luer & Escobar, 1983), "this species grows exclusively on Tibouchina lepidota trees, known locally as 'Sietecueros.'" The host species has since been transferred taxonomically to Andesanthus lepidotus (Melastomataceae); the common name "Sietecueros" remains in local use for the same tree.

In La Honda the species has been documented on living Andesanthus lepidotus trees standing isolated in pasture — an open-canopy, high-light context very different from the shaded cloud-forest interior where many other Lepanthes species are found. Individual plants have been observed on the lower trunk, growing directly on living bark rather than within moss cushions or beneath lichen crusts.

A striking ecological observation: Andesanthus lepidotus itself is a common tree across La Honda, persisting both in pasture and along forest edges, yet L. tibouchinicola has been documented from only one grove of the host. All known La Honda individuals occur clustered on A. lepidotus trees at this single site, despite numerous other A. lepidotus trees throughout the vereda. This patchiness may reflect narrower microhabitat requirements than host identity alone — perhaps related to humidity, tree age, slope, or aspect — or may reflect dispersal limitation or historical collection pressure. The pattern has not been systematically studied.

Andesanthus lepidotus in La Honda is known to host other orchid species as well, indicating its broader importance as an epiphyte substrate in the vereda; the species-level composition of this epiphyte community has not been documented in detail and represents a useful subject for future observation.

Lepanthes tibouchinicola is endemic to Colombia, with a narrow known range restricted to the departments of Antioquia and Caldas in the Cordillera Central (POWO, 2026). The type material was collected in Yarumal (Antioquia, Ratón Pelado, 2,700 m; R. Escobar & E. Valencia 2660, SEL holotype, 1983), with additional collections from the same locality, from Jardín (Antioquia, Alto de Ventanas, 2,700–2,850 m), and from Alto de San Miguel (Caldas, 2,730 m) documented in the protologue (Luer & Escobar, 1983).

The La Honda record represents a newly-confirmed locality within the species' known Cordillera Central distribution. The restricted known range, combined with the species' apparent dependence on a specific host tree, is consistent with its classification as Vulnerable globally (Moreno, Vieira-Uribe & Ávila-R, 2025) and Endangered at the national level in Colombia (Ministerio de Ambiente, 2024).

In La Honda the species has been observed multiple times vegetatively but only once in flower — in December 2025. One flower on an individual plant in La Honda was observed to persist for at least two months, indicating unusually long individual-flower longevity. Whether flowering is restricted to a specific season or occurs unpredictably across the year cannot be determined from a single flowering event, and remains a subject for further observation. The protologue collections span several months (January, May, October, November), suggesting that across the species' wider range, flowering is not tightly seasonal.

Recognition combines floral, vegetative and ecological characters: the elongate successively-flowered raceme up to 23 cm long (distinctly longer than in most Lepanthes of similar plant size), the bright yellow-to-orange flowers with two or three open simultaneously, the narrowly elliptical leaves on short slender ramicauls, and — in the field — the association with Andesanthus lepidotus ("Sietecueros"). The genus Lepanthes is diagnosed as a whole by the lepanthiform sheaths on the ramicauls, visible with a hand lens.

Lepanthes tibouchinicola is globally assessed as Vulnerable (VU) on the IUCN Red List (Moreno, Vieira-Uribe & Ávila-R, 2025). At the national regulatory level in Colombia, the species is listed in Resolución 0126 de 2024 of the Ministry of Environment as Endangered (EN, En Peligro), bringing it under formal legal protection.

The La Honda population carries particular conservation significance. The species depends on Andesanthus lepidotus — a pasture-persistent tree that, unlike forest-interior species, is vulnerable to routine landscape management: clearing for pasture expansion, cutting for firewood, and agricultural intensification can remove host trees in a single intervention. Unlike poaching pressure (which affects the orchid directly), these threats affect the host and therefore the orchid together, and they can act on timescales shorter than conservation monitoring.

For this reason, the specific location within La Honda where L. tibouchinicola has been documented is not published, and elevation data 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].