Epidendrum rocalderianum P.Ortiz & Hágsater 1999 GROUP Nocturnum
Photos © The Species Identification Task Force Website
TYPE Drawing TYPE Drawing © by R Jimenez M and The AMO Herbaria Website
Common Name Rozo & Calderon's Epidendrum [Colombian Former University students and Collectors of the Type Orchid current]
Flower Size 4" [10 cm]
Found in western Colombia on the Pacific slope of the Cordillera Occidental at elevations around 50 meters as a medium sized, hot growing, caespitose epiphyte with erect, laterally compressed, dilated towards the apex, flexuous stems carrying 5 all along the apical half of the stem, elliptic, acute, green above, purple beneath leaves that blooms in the spring but could be all year, on a terminal, without a spathe, pluriracemose, occuring over several years, rachis clearly visible between the apical leaves, successively single, several flowered inflorescence with much shorter than the ovary floral bracts and carrying creamy green sepals, yellowish green petals, a white lip with the midlobe yellowish, the callus is yellow and the column is white.
"Epidendrum rocalderianum, a member of the GROUP Nocturnum , is recognized by the short, widely rounded, lateral lobes of the lip, about 1/3 to 1/5 its length, the 1 to 1.6" [2.5 to 4 cm] long ovary which is clearly thickened ventrally throughout its apical half due to the swollen nectary, and the 4 to 7.6" x 1 to 1.4" [10 to 19 x 2.5 to 3.5 cm] long, acute leaves, the sepals are creamy-green. It is closely related to Epidendrum buenaventurae Kraenzl. which has the lateral lobes of the lip elongate, semiovate, acute, about 2/3 the length of the lip, and narrower leaves, 2.8 to 6 x .4 to .48" [7 to 15 x 1 to 1 .2 cm], the ovary terete, not inflated. Epidendrum tridens Poep. & Endl. found on the Amazon side of the Andes, also has a thickened ovary 2.4 to 4" [6 to 10 cm] long, leaves 3.4 to 6.4" x .76 to 2.4" [8.5 to 16 x 1.9 to 6 cm], and the lateral lobes of the lip elongate, about 2/3 the length of the lip." Hagsater etal 1999
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Icones Orchidacearum 3 Plate 319 Hagsater & Sanchez 1999 see recognition section; * Icones Orchidacearum 3 Plate 379 Ortiz & Hagsater 1999 drawing fide; Orquideas de la Serrania del Baudo Misas Urreta 2006 as E mininocturnum drawing/photo good; Orchid Digest Vol 73 #3 2009; Orchids of the Department of Valle De Cauca Colombia Vol 2 Kolanowska, Hagsater etal. 2014 photo drawing/photo fide; Orquideas, Tesoro de Colombia Vol 2 Ortiz & Uribe 2017 drawing/photo fide;
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
