Epidendrum anastasioi Hágsater 1993 GROUP Difforme
Photo by © Karremans/TYPE Drawing by © Jimenez, Hágsater & E.Santiago and The AMO Herbario Website
Common Name Anastasio's Epidendrum [Sr. Anastasio Alfaro - Costa Rican Orchid Enthusiast and Collector of type current]
Flower Size 1.2" [3 cm]
Found in Costa Rica in wet forests at elevations around 1200 to 1900 meters as a miniature to small sized, cool growing epiphyte with a simple, reed-like, somewhat laterally compressed, slightly zigzag stem carrying 5 to 9, all along the stem, subcoriaceous, thin, elliptic, unequally bilobed, margin entire leaves that blooms in the fall on a terminal, occuring only once, subumbellate, 15 to 22 flowered inflorescence with much shorter than the ovary, ovate, acute floral bracts and carrying resupinate, simultaneously opening flowers.
Similar to Epidendrum subumbellatum but this one is a smaller plant with laterally compressed stems and a trilobed lip with the lateral lobes being semi-ovate.
"Epidendrum anastasioi is part of GROUP Difforme characterized by the caespitose, sympodial plants, fleshy, pale green to glaucous leaves, apical inflorescence, sessile, rarely with a short peduncle, one-flowered to many-flowered, and then corymbose, without spathaceous bracts, fleshy, green to yellowish-green rarely white flowers. The species has larger plants with more and larger elliptic leaves 1.8 to 2.8" [4.5 to 7 cm] long, 15 to 22 flowered inflorescences a glabrous ovary and column, narrower sepals and petals and a wide sinus between the apical lobes of the lip. It is most similar to E bogarinii which has small plants, with 3 to 5 leaves with infundibuliform sheaths, two, simultaneous flowers, sepals .4 to .52" [10 to 13 mm] long, a minutely rugose ovary and column (ventrally), and a 3-lobed lip, erose margins, mid-lobe deeply emarginate, forming two semi-orbicular lobes. Epidendrum chlorocorymbos Schltr. has much larger plants, does not have infundibuliform sheaths, 5 to 20 flowered inflorescences, larger flowers with sepals and petals .52 to .77" [13 to 19.3 mm] long and the lip margin is entire. Epidendrum carnevalii Hágsater & L.Sánchez from the Caribbean slope of Colombia and Venezuela has taller, laterally compressed stems 5.6 to 10" [14 to 25 cm] long, with 4 to 12 leaves, inflorescences have 5 to 10 flowers and sepals are .52 to .72" [13 to 18 mm] long, the column and ovary are papillose, the lip has 1 to 3 thickened veins on the disc, margin is undulate, and the mid-lobe is short, emarginate, forming a pair of wide, divergent lobes. Epidendrum difforme Jacq. is endemic to the Windward Antilles of Montserrat, Guadelopue, Dominica, Martinique, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and Trinidad & Tobago; ancipitose stems are 4 to 10 leaved, inflorescence 2 to 5 flowered, lip is bicallose, the calli small, parallel, disc is thickened to form a low rib, margin of the lateral lobes is entire to crenate, that of the mid-lobe is entire, ovary and column are glabrous, and the clinandrium hood is funnel-shaped, the margin erose-dentate." Adapted from E bogarinii Icones Plate 1412 Hagsater etal 2013
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; *Icones Orchidacearum 2 Plate 106 Hagsater & Sanchez 1993 drawing fide; Field Guide to the Orchids of Costa Rica and Panama Dressler 1993; Manual de las Plantas de Costa Rica Vol 3 Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003; Icones Orchidacearum 14 Plate 1412 Hagsater & Santiago 2013 See recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 15 [2] Plate 1569 Hagsater & Sanchez 2016 see recognition section;
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