Epidendrum trachysepalum Hágsater 1992 GROUP Diothonea SUBGROUP Diothonea
Photos by Rebecca Repasky and The Atrium Website
TYPE Drawing by Hagsater and The AMO Herbaria Website
Specimen by Hagsater and The Field Museum Website
Common Name The Rough-Surfaced Sepal Epidendrum
Flower Size 3/4" [2 cm]
Found in Ecuador and Peru in wet montane forests and very cool wet cloud forests at elevations of 1700 to 3200 meters as a small sized, cool to cold growing epiphyte with slender, cane-like, sparsely branched, new stems arise from the subapical nodes of the previous stem, enveloped by persistent, close, tubular leaf sheaths which are leaf-bearing towards the apex, and carrying 4 to 6, aggregate towards the apex of the stem, distichous, articulate, sub-coriaceous, unequal in size, linear-lanceolate, subobtuse, attenuate to the conduplicate, articulated base, minutely apiculate, margin entire leaves that blooms in the summer and fall on a terminal, arching, racemose, occuring only once, peduncle short to .24" [6 mm] long, 1 to 1.2" [2.5 to 3 cm] long, overall, somewhat densely, simultaneously 9 to 11 flowered inflorescence with small, half as long as the ovary, triangular, acuminate floral bracts and carrying resupinate, pale pink to reddish colored flowers without fragrance data.
" Epidendrum trachysepalum belongs to the GROUP Diothonea SUBGROUP Diothonea which is characterized by the branching plants, linear lanceolate to oblong, bilobed leaves, racemose, arching-nutant inflorescence, membranaceous, rarely fleshy flowers, the entire to 3- lobed, ecallose lip with the margin erose without or with 1 to 10 thin, smooth to erose keels, the column completely to obliquely united to the lip, the anther reniform. The species is recognized by the pink to reddish flowers, dorsally muricate sepals, the slender column nearly totally free from the lip with a prominent column-foot, the panduriform lip with 3, low, very short keels. Epidendrum cryptotropis Hágsater, Collantes & E.Santiago has yellow flowers with purple veins, the sepals dorsally smooth, and the lip sub-entire, with 5 crested keels, the column nearly totally united to the column, with a pair of rounded wings at the apex. Epidendrum gastrochilum Kraenzl. has up to 5, somewhat larger flowers spaced on the rachis, sepals .56 to .64" [14 to 16 mm]long, the lip ovate-orbicular, the base cuneate, column nearly totally united to the lip without forming a column-foot. Epidendrum heterothoneum (Rchb.f. & Warsc.) Hágsater & Dodson has dorsally smooth sepals, a bidentate column nearly totally united to the lip, and the lip without keels. Epidendrum trachypentatropis Hágsater & E.Santiago though also with muricate sepals has a sack-like lip, the column nearly totally united to it, and 5 unequal, prominent, laminar keels hidden beneath the column." Hagsater etal 2010
Synonyms Diothonea exasperata C. Schweinf. 1951;
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Orchids of Peru Vol 2 Schweinfurth 1959 as Diothonea exasperata drawing fide; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965 as Diothonea exasperata drawing; *Orquídea (Méx.) 12(2): 296. Hagsater 1992; Icones Orchidacearum Peruviarum Plate 657 Bennett & Christenson 2001 drawing not = E trachydipterum; Machu Picchu Orchids Christenson 2003; Icones Orchidacearum 7 Plate 732 Hagsater & Sanchez 2004 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 7 Plate 797 Hagsater and Sanchez 2004 see recognition section; Orquideologia Vol 24 #1 2005; Icones Orchidacearum 11 Plate 1166 Hagsater 2008 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 13 Plate 1394 Hagsater & Salazar 2010 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 13 Plate 1395 Hasater & Salazar 2010 drawing fide; Orquideas, Tesoro de Colombia Vol 2 Ortiz & Uribe 2017; Icones Orchidacearum 14 Plate 1409 Hagsater & Santiago 2013 See recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 14 Plate 1420 Hagsater & Santiago 2013 See recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 14 Plate 1490 Hagsater & Santiago 2013 See recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 17(1) Plate 1709 Hagsater & Jimenez 2019 see recognition section
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