Epidendrum beatricis Hágsater et Uribe Vélez 2019 GROUP Spathiger SUBGROUP Rigidum
LCDP by C. Uribe V. & R. Jiménez M. / Photo by © T Tobar and AMO Herbaria Website
Common Name Beatriz's Epidendrum [Honors Mrs. Olga Beatriz Escobar in Cali, who cultivated the plant and exhibited it at the National Orchid Exposition in Popayán, Cauca in March, 2018, and shared the type material]
Flower Size .6" [1.5 cm]
Found in southern Colombia and Ecuador on the Pacific slope of the Cordillera at elevations of 1000 to 1500 meters as small sized, cool growing epiphyte with a simple, cane-like, the lower 4 to 6 internodes rhizomatous, ca. .8 to 2" [2 to 5 cm] long, terete at base, somewhat laterally compressed above, sub-erect-reclining, straight; base covered by 2 sheaths non-foliar, becoming scarious and carrying 2 to 4, distributed along the apical half of the stem, alternate, articulate, sub-erect, twisted near base so the blade is nearly on the same plane as the stem, coriaceous, green, concolor; sheath tubular, minutely striated; blade narrowly oblong-elliptic, apex bilobed, margin entire, spreading leaves that blooms in the spring on a terminal, without a spathe, peduncle .88" [2.2 cm] long, erect, straight, laterally compressed, provided with a single bract .68" [1.7 cm] long, similar to the floral bracts, tubular at base, conduplicate, apex rounded, 2.4 to 4" [6 to 10 cm] long overall, distichous, simple, erect, flowering only once, successively few, eventually all open at the same time, 3 to 8 flowered inflorescence with amplexicaul, conduplicate, not imbricated, similar in size and shape, slightly shorter than the ovary, ovate-elliptic, when spread, dorsally carinate, apex obtuse floral bracts and carrying . distichous, non-fragrant, the lip always facing the rachis, ochre turning orange with age flowers with a green column.
"Epidendrum beatricis belongs to the GROUP Spathiger which is recognized by sympodial plants and distichous inflorescence, and the SUBGROUP Rigidum which is characterized by the non-secund, mostly small flowers with the lip <.48" [12 mm] long. The species is recognized by the yellow-green to ochre flowers, the narrower petals, .048" [1.2 mm] wide, 3-veined, lip sub-rectangular-ovoid, small globose calli, the straight column with the clinandrium hood straight or slightly upwards. It is very similar to Epidendrum cardiophorum Schltr., the common species from Mesoamerica, and is also found in the basin of the Cauca River, and at low altitude along the Pacific coast of Colombia and Ecuador, and which always has green flowers, a straight, sub-erect inflorescence, and .28 to .32" [7 to 8 mm] long sepals, petals .08 to .12" [2 to 3 mm] wide, 5-veined, spreading, nearly reflexed, lip ovate-cordate to sub-orbicular, cordate at the base, apex rounded, short, triangular-ovate floral bracts .28 to .44" [7 to 11 mm] long which do not totally cover the ovary, and entire clinandrium-hood which is slightly arching downwards. Epidendrum rigidum Sw. usually has an arching inflorescence, small flowers, sepals .16 to .28" [4 to 7 mm] long, the sepals and petals only partly spreading, the large .28 to .88" [7 to 22 mm] long floral bracts covering the whole of the ovary, and the prominent, erose to deeply dentate clinandrium-hood where the rostellum is nearer to the base of the column and the anther sunken, the calli are pyramid-shaped. Epidendrum angustisegmentum (L.O.Williams) Hágsater from the Caribbean coast of western Panama and Costa Rica, has smaller plants (the stems 4 to 6" [10 to 15 cm] tall, shorter, wider leaves, and larger flowers with the sepals .36 to .4" [9 to 10 mm] long and ovate, .6 to .8" [15 to 20 mm] long bracts. Epidendrum nitens Rchb.f. is easily recognized by the floral bracts which are divergent from the rachis, ovate and rounded, the sepals and petals only partly spreading, and the pandurate lip." Hagsater etal 2019
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Icones Orchidacearum 17(1) Plate 1707 Hagsater & Jimenez 2019 drawing/photo fide
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
