Epidendrum aida-alvareziae Hágsater 2016 GROUP Rupestre

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

Part shade Cold LATEWinter EARLY Spring

Common Name Aida Alvarez Epidendrum [Peruvian associated with the QCNE herbarium, Museo Ecuatoriano de Ciencias Naturales, Quito, who collected the typecurrent]

Flower Size .6" [1.5 cm]

Found in northern Peru in the Cordillera Occidental of the Andes at elevations around 3550 meters as a miniature sized, cold growing epiphyte with somewhat thickened, terete, stems enveloped completely by evanescent sheaths and carrying 1 to 3, one from the apex, the rest from around the middle, unequal in size, narrowly elliptic to oblanceolate, acute to acuminate, articulate, margin entire leaves that blooms in the late winter and early spring on a terminal, erect, without a spathe, ocurring only once, pendent, peduncle 1.6 to 2" [4 to 5 cm] long, somewhat laterally compressed, provided with 1 to 2 median bracts, rachis to 2.8" [7 cm] long, somewhat latereally compressed, loosely, successively 10 to 15 flowered inflorescence with 1/2 as long as the ovary, triangular-lanceolate, acuminate, clasping floral bracts and carrying yellow colored, resupinate flowers.

"Epidendrum aida-alvarezii belongs to the GROUP Rupestre , which is characterized by caespitose, sympodial plants, 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 or bicallose and with several fleshy thickened keels on the disc. The species is characterized by the shorter, proportionately wider leaves, .24 to 2" x .2 to .4" [0.6 to 5.0 x 0.5 to 1.0 cm], the straight column terminating in a short wide point, instead of being truncate, the shallowly 3-lobed lip, with the mid-lobe emarginate, in general form the apical half looks more like a truncate pyramid, petals narrowly oblanceolate, apically rounded. Epidendrum rupestre is very similar vegetatively, including the shape of the lip, but is described as the lip partly free from the column, lacking any calli, with 3 to 5 ribs on the disc of the lip; that species is apparently endemic to Imbabura province of Ecuador. Epidendrum excelsum C.Schweinf. has small, erect plants, has longer, proportionately narrower, grass-like leaves, 1-6 to 4" x .2 to .4" [4 to 10 x 0.5 to 1.0 cm], an entire lip, with the margin deeply erose-dentate, two calli at the base which are large but not upright, and the disc somewhat thickened into 5 to 7 very low ribs. Epidendrum ochoae Collantes & Hágsater has a pendulous, sympodial habit, the stem with a homoblastic pseudobulb, terete, constituted by 3 internodes, green, smooth, brilliant, the leaves lanceolate to long-lanceolate, mucronate, leathery, sepals oblique, united to the column, the lip deeply 3-lobed, with 2 prominent, upright calli, and with 3 prominent thickened ribs, the lateral ones in front of the calli, smaller than the mid-rib. Epidendrum pachydiscum Hágsater, described from Cusco Province, is overall very similar, though it has erect stems, the lip is ecallose, and the lateral lobes of the lip are much wider. Epidendrum megalocoleum Hágsater the entire lip, deeply emarginate and mucronate, ecallose, the disc with 3 well-defined, central keels, the lateral pair ending at about 3/4´s the length of the lip, the central keel staring at the middle of the lip and ending in the fleshy mucro." Hagsater etal 2016

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; *Icones Orchidacearum 15 [2] Plate 1570 Hagsater 2016 Photo/drawing fide; Icones Orchidacearum 17(2) Plate 1763 Hagsater & Jimenez 2020 see recognition section;

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