Epidendrum difforme Jacq. 1760 GROUP Difforme type for the group
Photo by © Eric Hunt
Photo by © Weyman Bussey, plant grown by Woodstream Orchids.
TYPE Drawing by © Jimenez, Hágsater & E.Santiago and The AMO Herbario Website
to MOSTLY LATE 
and 
Common Name Umbelled or Different Epidendrum
Flower Size less than 1 1/4" [less than 2.85 cm]
Found within the Caribbean in the Leeward and Windward Islands as well as Trinidad at elevations up to 1500 meters as a variable sized, cool to warm growing, pendant or erect, caespitose, epiphytic species with numerous, leafy, flexuous stems enveloped completely by persistent sheaths carrying leathery to fleshy, oblong to elliptic-lanceolate, obtuse, basally clasping leaves and may bloom at any time during the year but mostly in the late spring and summer on a short, umbellate 1 to many flowered, racemose inflorescence subtended by a large spathe with fragrant medicinal scented , transluscent green or white flowers.
This species in a wide view includes many species that are now being split away. I have split some of these species away that I feel, from personal observation, visually seem different. These species include, Epidendrum apaganum, Epidendrum campacchii and Epidendrum caribiorum Ackerman & Acev.-Rodr. 2012 each differing mostly in the form that the plant takes more than the flowers. See each individual species to see the differences.
"Epidendrum difforme belongs to the GROUP Difforme which is characterized by the caespitose, sympodial plants, fleshy, pale green to glaucous leaves, apical inflorescence, sessile, rarely with a short peduncle, single flowered to corymbose, without spathaceous bracts, fleshy, green to yellowish-green rarely white flowers. The species is recognized by the ancipitose, strongly compressed stems, 2 to 5, simultaneous, green flowers, 3-lobed, bicallose lip, the calli subglobose, lateral lobes with enrire to crenulate margin, midlobe short, wide, emarginate, forming two rounded lobes. Of all the species in the Antilles only E. difforme and E. panegyricum Hágsater & L.Sánchez have ancipitose, strongly compressed stems, and whereas E. difforme has elliptic to suborbicular lateral lobes of the lip, with a large, wide, emarginate midlobe forming two semiorbicular lobes, E. panegyricum, endemic to the island of Dominica, has a trapezoid lip with elliptic lateral lobes and a very small midlobe, itself bilobed with narrow, rounded lobes and a prominent apicule in the slnus. The Antillean Epidendrum umbelliferum J.F. Gmel. 1791 has large, vigorous, succulent plants, with compressed but not ancipitose stems and usually more numerous flowers. All other specles of the group on the islands have terete to slightly compressed stems E boricuarum Hágsater & L.Sánchez, E. floridense Hágsater, Epidendrum crenulidifforme L.Sánchez & Hagsater, Epidendrum abbottii L.Sanchez & Hágsater, Epidendrum dodii l.Sánchez & Hágsater, and Epidendrum orientale Hágsater & M .A.Díaz. There are a several species on the mainland in South America which have similarly ancipitose stems, including: E. apaganum Mansfeld, E. microcephalum Hágsater & L.Sánchez, E. pseudoapaganum D.E.Senn. & Christenson, E. upanodifforme Hágsater & Dodson, E. apaganoides D.E.Benn. & Christenson, and E. yaracuyense C.Carnevali & C.A.Romero." Hagsater etal 2006
Synonyms Amphiglottis difformis [Jacq.]Britt. 1924; Auliza difformis [Jacq.]Small 1913; Epidendrum arachnoideum Barb. Rodr. 1877; *Epidendrum difforme (Jacq.) Sw. 1760; Epidendrum radiatum Hoffmanns. 1842; Epidendrum virens Hoffmanns. 1841; Hormidium virens (Hoffmanns.) Brieger 1960; Neolehmannia difformis [Jacq.] Pabst 1978
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
Bonplandia Rchb.f 1854; Bonplandia Rchb.f 1856; Otia Botanica Hamburgensia Rchb.f 1878; Symbolae Antillanae Vol VI Orchidaceae Urban 1909; Flora of Jamaica Fawcett & Rendle 1910 drawing fide; Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 6: 69 1919; Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 19: 36. Costa Rica Schlechter 1923; Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 19: 119. Costa Rica Schlechter 1923; Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 19: 211. Costa Rica Schlechter 1923; The Genus Epidendrum Ames 1936; Catalogo Descriptivo de las Orquideas Cubanas Acuna 1938 as Amphiglottis difforme; Flore Descriptive des Antilles Francaises H. Stehle 1939 drawing good; The Orchids of Panama L.O. Williams & P Allen 1946 drawing; Ceiba Vol 5 No 1 L O Williams 1956; AOS Bulletin Vol 27 No 6 1958; Orchids of Peru Vol 2 Fieldiana Schweinfurth 1959 drawing good; Native Orchids of Trinidad Schultes 1960; AOS Bulletin Vol 30 No 5 1961; Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated Vol 2 Dunsterville & Garay 1961 not = E carnevalii; AOS Bulletin Vol 31 No 3 1962; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965; AOS Bulletin Vol 36 #9 1967= E carnevalii; Flora de Venezuela Volumen XV Part 3 Foldats 1970 not = A - E carnevalii & B - E apaganum; The Native Orchids of Florida Luer 1972 Photos/drawing fide; Flora of the Lesser Antilles Garay & Sweet 1974 drawing fide; Las Orquedias De El Salvador Vol 1 Hamer 1974 drawing/photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 44 #8 1975; Orchidaceae Brasilense Band 1 Pabst & Dungs 1975 drawing not; Die Orchideen 3 Auflage Bd 1 Sonderabdruck aus Schlechter Lieferung 9 513 - 576 Brieger, Maatsch and Senghas 1977; AOS Bulletin Vol 48 #5 1979 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 49 No 5 1979 photo; Orquídea (Mexico City), n.s., 7[3]: 1979; Orchids of Venezuela, An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 2 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 as Neolehmannia difforme not = Epidendrum carnevalii; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 078 Dodson 1980 drawing fide; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 560 Dodson 1982 as Neolehmannia apagana; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 1053 Dodson 1984 as Neolehmannia difformis; AOS Bulletin Vol 54 No 4 1985 photo fide; Las Orquideas Nativas de Cuba Aleida Diaz 1985 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 55 No 3 1986 photo fide; Orchids from The Coast Of Ecuador Arosemana, Jurado, Estrada and Konanz 1988 photo fide; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 1317 Atwood 1989 see notes; Flora Novo-Galaciana Vol 16 McVaugh 1985; AOS Bulletin Vol 55 NO 3 1986 photo; The Orchids of Surinam Werkhoven 1986 photo fide; An Introdution to the Orchids of Mexico Wiard 1987 photo fide; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Series II Orchids of Peru Plate 0062 Dodson & Bennett 1989 drawing fide; Orchids Travel By Air A Pictoral Safari Mulder, Mulder-Roelfsema and Schuiteman 1990 photo fide;
Icones Orchidacearum I Plate 35 Hagsater and Salazar 1990 see recognition section; AOS Bulletin Vol 61 No 10 1992 drawing/photo fide; The Manual Of Cultivated Orchid Species Bechtel, Cribb & Launert 1992 drawing fide; The Orchids of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands Ackerman 1992 drawing fide; Inventaire Taxominique des Plantes de la Guyane Francaise Vol II Les Orchidaceaes Cremers and Hoff 1992; The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Orchids Pridgeon 1992 photo fide; Icones Orchidacearum 2 Plate 105 Hagsater & Sanchez 1993 see recognition section;
Icones Orchidacearum 2 Plate 106 Hagsater 1993 see recognition section;
Icones Orchidacearum 2 plate 114 Hagsater 1993 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 2 Plate 117 Hagsater & Sanchez 1993 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 2 Plate 123 Hagsater & Sanchez 1993 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 2 Plate 129 Hagsater & Sanchez 1993 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 2 Plate 131 Hagsater & Sanchez 1993 see recognition section;
Icones Orchidacearum 2 Plate 133 Hagsater 1993 see recognition section;
Icones Orchidacearum 2 plate 135 Hagsater 1993 see recognition section;
Icones Orchidacearum 2 plate 138 Hagsater 1993 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 2 Plate 142 Hagsater & Sanchez 1993 see recognition section;
Icones Orchidacearum 2 Plate 143 Hagsater 1993 see recognition section;
Icones Orchidacearum 2 Plate 144 Hagsater 1993 see recognition section;
Icones Orchidacearum 2 Plate 150 Hagsater & Salazar 1993 see recognition section;
Icones Orchidacearum 2 Plate 153 Hagsater 1993 see recognition section; I
cones Orchidacearum 2 Plate 157 Hagsater 1993 see recognition section;
Icones Orchidacearum 2 Plate 167 Hagsater 1993 see recognition section;
Icones Orchidacearum 2 Plate 170 Hagsater 1993 see recognition section;
Icones Orchidacearum 2 Plate 182 Hagsater 1993 see recognition section;
Icones Orchidacearum 2 Plate 185 Hagsater 1993 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
