IOSPE PHOTOS

Epidendrum arnoldii Schltr. 1924 GROUP Pseudepidendrum SUBGROUP Porphyreum

TYPE LCDP Photo by J S Moreno and Icones Orchidacearum 18(2) Plate 1857 Hagsater & Jimenez 2021 and the AMO Herbaria Website

Drawing

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

LATE

Common Name Arnold's Epidendrum [Mr Schultze, German Orchid Collector in Colombia 1900's]

Flower Size 3/4" [1.85 cm]

Found in central Colombia in dense, dwarf, mossy, cloud forests at elevations of 1800 to 3300 meters, as a large to giant sized, cool to cold growing terrestrial with elongate, leafy stems enveloped by many nerved, striate, leaf bearing sheaths and carrying erect-patent, ligulate-oblong, subacute, coriaceous leaves that blooms in the late spring and summer on a terminal, shortly pedunculate to 2.8" [7 cm] long, paniculate, to 5.2" [13 cm] long, densely many flowered inflorescence with lanceolate, acuminate floral bracts and carrying sweetly fragrant flowers

"Epidendrum arnoldi Schltr. belongs to the GROUP Pseudoepidendrum which is characterized by the caespitose habit, unbranched stems, apical, branched inflorescence, no true spathaceous bract, and the flowers with a long, thin column, a 3-lobed lip with the mid-lobe generally bifid and divaricate, and filiform petals, and SUBGROUP Porphyreum which has variously colored flowers, not green with the apex of the column and lip white. The species is recognized by the small, purple-pink flowers, the disc and calli pink to white, sepals .32 to .4" [8 to 10 mm] long, the lip convex in natural position. Epidendrum laeve Lindl. is very similar, but the basal lobes of the lip are dolabriform-falcate, and the apical-lobe slightly arching upwards, not convex in natural position. Epidendrum peraltum Schltr. has somewhat larger flowers with sepals .52 to .64" [14 to 16 mm] long, colored greenish yellow to a dirty pink, the lip spreading in natural position, with the lateral lobes strongly retrorse, and the midlobe forming a pair of divaricate, linear lobes. Epidendrum porphyreum Lindley has fleshy purple flowers with the disc white, sepals .52 to .6" [13 to 15 mm] long, the lateral lobes of the lip ovate-dolabriform, not retrorse, and the mid-lobe is formed by a pair of triangular lobes." Hagsater etal 2010

" Epidendrum falsiloquum Rchb.f. 1885 which has often been confused with Epidendrum arnoldi Schltr., has white-ochraceous flowers, with 3 purple lines on the keels of the disc, and a pair of purple dots at the apex of the column, very fleshy sepals .28 to .32" [7 to 8 mm] long, the lateral lobes of the lip sub-orbicular, the width between the lateral lobes and between the mid-lobe about equal. Epidendrum arnoldi Schltr. has much shorter leaves (ca. 3.2" [8 cm] long, similar sized flowers with sepals .32" [8 mm] long, but the flowers are lilac-pink, and the lateral lobes of the lip are dolabriform." Adapted from Plate 1330 Hagsater etal

Synonyms

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