Epidendrum acrobatesii Hágsater & Dodson 2001 GROUP Batesii

Photo © by Diego Calderon and his Flickr Orchid Photo Website

Type Drawing TYPE Drawing by © Jimenez, Hágsater & E.Santiago and The AMO Herbario Website

LATER

Common Name The High Elevation E batesii Epidendrum

Flower Size 1" [2.5 cm]

Found in southern Ecuador in virgin and disturbed cloud forests at elevations around 2500 meters as a small to medium sized, cold growing terrestrial with branching, produced from the subapical internodes of the previous stem, cane-like, terete stem carrying usually 5, all along the apical half of the stem, ellipitic, mucronate, margin finely erose-dentate leaves that blooms in the later summer on a terminal, racemose to paniculate, suberect, short, compact, flexuous, 6 to 12 flowered inflorescence with a prominent keel below each, much shorter the ovary, conduplicate, obtuse to acute floral bracts and carrying successively opening, 1 to 2 open at a time, resupinate flowers.

CAUTION! The photo above is very similar to E acrobatesii but please use with caution as it was collected some 500 miles away from where this species normally occurs. The Type Drawing is absolutely correct!

"Epidendrum acrobates belongs to the GROUP Batesii , characterized by the monopodial main stem with a subapical branching habit, acute leaves, successive, essentially non-resupinate flowers, opening one at a time, deep nectary, entire to 3-lobed lip with the lateral lobes more or less fimbriate to erose. The species appears at first sight to have the habit of a plant of the GROUP Andean SUBGROUP Moritzii, but it is recognized by its branching stem, elliptic-lanceolate, acute leaves, and a suberect peduncle and rachis, the successive flowers, one open at a time, the obcuneate midlobe of the lip and the large lateral lobes transversely semi-ovate, the apex acute. It is very close to E. batesii which has larger flowers, a more prominently inflated ovary, and ranges along the Pacific lowlands of southern Colombia and Ecuador at elevations of 250 to 600 meters" Hagsater etal 2001

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; *Icones Orchidacearum 4 Plate 402 Hagsater & Sanchez 2001 drawing fide; Icones Orchidacearum 7 Plate 719 Hagsater and Sanchez 2004 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 7 Plate 771 Hagsater and Sanchez 2004 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum Vol 9 Plate 912 Hagsater & Sanchez 2007 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 11 Plate 1134 Hagsater 2008 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 15 [2] Plate 1573 Hagsater & Sanchez 2016 see recognition section; Orquideas, Tesoro de Colombia Vol 2 Ortiz & Uribe 2017 photo fide;

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