TYPE Drawing by R. Jiménez M. and The AMO Herbario Website

Common Name The Acajanaco Epidendrum [refers to Abra de Acjanaco at the entrance to the Manu National Park, where the species has been collected. According to local tradition the Quechua name Acja means Chicha (a fermented or non-fermented corn beverage), so Acjanaco would be derived from Acjanacuy, which means “Cordially serve yourself a Chicha”. An Abra is a west-east pass across the Andes, where a ravine or a river crosses the Andes. The etymology of the word is debated, but apparently derives from the Quechua word “anti” which means east, as in Antisuyu, the eastern region ]

Flower Size 1" [2.5 cm]

Found in Cusco department of Peru from the top of the eastern Andean range at the entrance of the Manú National Park, at elevations of 3000 to 3500 scarce in tall pajonal with abundant shrubs as a miniature to just small sized, cold growing epiphyte with thin, forming fusiform pseudobulbs, furrowed and rugose, covered by a single sheath 2.08" [5.2 cm] long, membranaceous, acute, scarious, becoming fibrous with age, absent in old stems and carrying a single, apical, articulate, coriaceous, crass, narrowly elliptic, apex obtuse, margin entire, spreading lea fthat blooms in the fall on a terminal, erect, arising through a single, apical, tubular, oblong, conduplicate, apex obtuse spathe, peduncle 2" [5 cm] long, terete, thin, erect, straight, rachis .2 to 0.28" [.5 to 0.7 cm] long, 2.6 to 3" [6.5 to 7.5 cm] long overall including the flowers, apical from the developing stem, erect, racemose, simultaneouls 3 flowered inflorescence with much shorter than the ovary, triangular, acuminate, embracing floral bracts and carrying non-resupinate, purple-brown flowers with the fragrance not registered.

"Epidendrum acjanacoense belongs to the GROUP Saxicola characterized by the fusiform pseudobulbous stems, the caespitose or scandent habit, the prominent spathe apically rounded, the few-flowered, erect inflorescence, the flowers purple or yellow, and surface of the vegetative structures often rugose. The new species is recognized by the purple-brown flowers, sepals .56 to .64" [14 to 16 mm] long, elliptic, petals .6 x .256" [15 x 6.4 mm], obovate-elliptic, lip 3-lobed, lateral lobes sub-orbicular, base cordate, mid-lobe sub-quadrate, apex short bilobed with a small apiculus in the sinus. It is similar to Epidendrum herreranum C.Schweinf. which has yellow flowers tinged orange to reddish bronze, sepals .78 to .8" [19.5 to 20.0 mm], ovate-elliptic, petals .74 x .44" [19 x 11 mm], rhombic-spatulate, lateral lobes of the lip obliquely dolabriform with the inner margins truncate and the mid-lobe flabellate with the apex retuse and a pair of sub-orbicular lobules. Epidendrum tetartociclium Collantes & Hágsater has sepals pale-green to creamy green, petals and lip creamy green to citrus yellow, sepals 1 to 1.04" [25 to 26 mm] long, elliptic, petals .096 x .32" [24 x 8 mm], oblong-elliptic to oblong-obtrullate, the lateral lobes of the lip shaped like a quarter circle, and the mid-lobe with quadrate isthmus, abruptly dilating into a pair of lobes which are rounded to sub-deltoid, apex retuse. Epidendrum monzonense Kraenzl. has brown sepals, .6" [15 mm] long, oblong, and the lip yellow, lateral lobes of the lip dolabriform, the midlobe widely obcordate, cuneate, with an apical mucronate sinus, the apiculus fleshy. Epidendrum wayqechaense Hágsater, E.Santiago & J.Duarte has creamy white flowers, sepals .52" [13 mm] long, obovate elliptic to elliptic, petals .52 x .01" [13 x 2.5 mm], narrowly spatulate-oblanceolate, the lateral lobes of the lip dolabriform, and the mid-lobe sub-quadrate, revolute in natural position. Epidendrum repaskyae Hágsater, E.Santiago & J.Duarte has creamy white flowers with the disc yellow, sepals and petals arching forward and this forming a cup, sepals .44" [11 mm] long, petals .4 x .2" [10 x 5 mm], lateral lobes of the lip sub-quadrate, corners rounded, and the mid-lobe sub-quadrate, apex truncate with the margin revolute, appearing emarginate." Hagsater etal 2019

Synonyms

ReferencesW3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Icones Orchidacearum 17(2) Plate 1757 Hagsater & Jimenez 2020 Drawing fide; Icones Orchidacearum 17(2) Plate 1796 Hagsater & Jimenez 2020 see recognition section;

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