Epidendrum aura-usecheae Hágsater, C.Rincón-Useche & O.Pérez 2013 GROUP Secundum SUBGROUP Elongatum
Photo © by O.Pérez/TYPE Drawing by © C. Rincón-Useche & O. Pérez and The AMO Herbario Website
Common Name Aura Useche’s Epidendrum [mother of the second author]
Flower Size .6" [1.5 cm]
Found in Colombia in wet montane forests at elevations around 1200 to 2600 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cool to cold growing terrestro-lithophyte with simple, cane-like, erect when young, arching when mature, purple at the base, pale purple in the middle, apically green stems carrying about 26, distichous, alternate, dark green, distributed throughout upper 2/3 of the stem; narrowly elliptic-lanceolate, apex obtuse, faintly bilobed, coriaceous, smooth, green, unequal in size leaves that blooms in the winter through spring on a racemose, successive, pluriracemose (producing new racemes through the time); each raceme compact, peduncle elongate, terete up to 17” [42.5 cm] long, densely, successively 12 to 16, many flowered inflorescence covered by several tubular, acute, imbricating bracts and with ovate-lanceolate, much shorter than the ovary, triangular, acuminate floral bracts and carrying non-resupinate flowers.
"Epidendrum aura-usecheae belongs to the GROUP Secundum which is recognized by the caespitose habit, numerous coriaceous leaves, and generally an elongate peduncle to a pluri-racemose inflorescence, brightly colored flowers generally pollinated by hummingbirds, and the caudicles of the pollinarium granulose, the tetrads appearing like a loose pile of roof-tiles, without any spathaceous bracts and the SUBGROUP Elongatum, recognized by the non-resupinate flowers with a complicated callus. This new species is lithophytic with yellow flowers, the margins of the lip deeply fimbriate with the fimbria bent in all directions, giving an impression of total disorder; the column wings are prominent, bent upwards and apically truncate, the margin irregularly dentate. It is color-wise very similar to Epidendrum xanthinum described from Minas Geraes, Brazil, which has the margins of the larger lip .28 to .32 x .36 to .4" [7 to 8 x 9 to 10 mm], spreading flat, and deeply dentate. Epidendrum melinanthum Schltr. described from the Valle del Cauca has a much simpler callus formed by 3 tubercles, the lip is T shaped, with a deeply dentate margin, and the mid-lobe bifid, into two square, somewhat divergent lobes with a mucro in the sinus. The more common species in the area north of Bogotá is the purple-pink Epidendrum arachnoglossum Rchb.f.. Epidendrum ibaguense has orange colored flowers, shorter leaves, ca. 1.4 to 2.8" [3.5 to 7 cm] long, the lateral lobes of the lip are semi-ovate with the margin lacerate, and the mid-lobe is cuneate with the dentate margin." Hagsater etal
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; *Icones Orchidacearum 14 Plate 1410 Hagsater, Rincon-Useche, Perez 2013 drawing/photo fide; Orchids of the Department of Valle De Cauca Colombia Vol 2 Kolanowska, Hagsater etal. 2014 drawing/photo fide; Orquideas, Tesoro de Colombia Vol 2 Ortiz & Uribe 2017 photo fide;
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