Epidendrum megalcoleum Hágsater 2007 GROUP Rupestre

TYPE Drawing by © Jimenez and The AMO Herbaria Website

LATE EARLY

Common Name The Large Vagina Epidendrum [in reference to the shape of the enlarged, thickened keels of the disc of the lip which is reminiscent of female genetalia]

Flower Size 1/2” [1.25 cm]

Found in Amazonas and Cusco departments of Peru at elevations of 3000 to 3600 meters as a mini-miniature to miniature sized, cold growing epiphyte with simple, forming short, fusiform pseudobulbs enveloped basally by 1 to 2, acute sheaths and carrying 2 to 5, one apical, the others arising on foliaceous sheaths, articulate, suberect, narrowly elliptic, acute, low dorsal keel, subcoriaceous, margin entire, unequal leaves with the sheathed leaves generally smaller that blooms in the late fall and early winter on a terminal, racemose, erect, peduncle short, thin, laterally compressed, mostly simultaneously many flowered inflorescence with half as long as the ovary, triangular, ovate, acute floral bracts and carrying 10 to 13, resupinate, pale yellowish brown flowers.

"Epidendrum megacoeoleum belongs to the GROUP Rupestre which is characterized by the caespitose, sympodial plant, the pseudobulbous stems with 1 to 4 fully developed leaves toward the apex, and lack of spathes at the base of an erect, racemose or paniculate inflorescence, the lip ecallose but with several fleshy thickened keels on the disc. The species is recognized by the 10 to 13 flowered raceme of small flowers with sepals .264 to .28" [6.6 to 7.1 mm long), the entire lip, deeply emarginate and mucronate, ecallose, the disc with 3 well-defined, central keels the lateral pair ending at about 3/4 the length of the lip, the central keel starting at the middle of the lip and ending in the fleshy mucro. Epidendrum excelsum C. Schweinf. has an entire lip with the margin deeply dentate, two calli at the base, and the disc somewhat thickened, but otherwise the habit is simlar as well as the flowers (both were collected together in Machu Picchu, [fide Uchima]. Epidendrum pachydiscum Hágsater has elliptic leaves .28 to .48" [7 to 12 mm wide, the erect, many-flowered raceme of small flowers with sepals .21 to .23" [5.3 to 5.8 mm] long, and the deeply 3- lobed lip ecallose with a fleshy, 3-keeled disc, and the midlobe bilobed, the outer sides curved outwards and entire, the inner sides dentate to short filllbriate the lobes about as long as they are wide. Epidendrum rupestre Lindl. has a loosely racemose inflorescence, larger flowers with sepals .28" [7 mm] long, and the midlobe of the lip su6uadrate-rounded, broader than long." Hagsater etal 2007

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Icones Orchidacearum 9 Plate 956 Hagsater 2007 drawing fide; Icones Orchidacearum 15 [1] Plate 1525 Hagsater & Sanchez 2015 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 15 [1] Plate 1546 Hagsater & Sanchez 2015 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 15 [2] Plate 1570 Hagsater & Sanchez 2016 see recognition section;

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------