Epidendrum bicirrhatum D.E.Benn. & Christenson 1998 GROUP Bicirrhatum

Photo by Luis Ocupa and the Sociedad de Orquideas Peruana

TYPE Drawing

TYPE Drawing by Bennett & Christenson and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria

LATE EARLY

Common Name or Meaning The Twice Cirrhate Epidendrum [refers to the appendages of the labellem apex]

Flower Size .4" [1 cm]

Found in Huanuco department of Peru in montane wet forests at elevations around 800 meters as a small sized, warm growing epiphyte with erect, leafy stems carrying, linear-lanceolate, acuminate leaves that blooms in the late summer and early fall on a terminal, nodding, 1.6" [4 cm] long including the [1.4 cm] long peduncle, densely 7 to 10 flowered inflorescence carrying opaque, pale cream orange flowers with the tepals green at the base, the tips of the lips calli keels are lavender and the column is white at the base and creamy yellow above.

"Epidendrum bicirrhatum of GROUP Bicirrhatum characterized by the caespitose habit and simple, short, leafy stems blooming with a compact, nodding inflorescence with conspicuous floral bracts as long as the ovary and carrying many fleshy, green and or white flowers with a deeply bilobulate lip with sometimes cirrhate lobules and thin, unequal pollina with the inner pair being smaller without being of the bird-wing type. The species has opaque, pale cream-orange flowers, the sepals and petals green at the base, the tips of the calli keels lavender, and the column white at the base, cream-yellow above. E brachyblastum has deep green flowers with the lip and apical half of the column snow white, the lateral lobes of the lip are narrow and the apical cirrhose and short. Both closely resemble Epidendrum tiwinzaense Hágsater & Dodson which has pale green flowers, with the column and lip cream-colored, sepals .24 to .28" [6 to 7 mm] long, the lip with very wide, dolabriform lateral lobes. Epidendrum hugomedinae Hágsater & Dodson is vegetatively similar, but has very attractive, fragrant, snow-white flowers with the keels of the lip tinged violet and the obcuneate midlobe formed by two, somewhat divergent, rounded, lobes. The Bolivian Epidendrum ophidion Dodson & Vásquez is quite similar, but has successive, white flowers with three purple lines on the disc of the lip, pustulate sepals .24 to .32" [6 to 8 mm] long, and the dolabriform lateral lobes have a crenulate margin." Adapted from E brachyblasyum Plate 713 Hagsater etal 2004

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; *Icones Orchidaceae Peruviarum Plate 453 Bennett & Christenson 1998 drawing fide; Icones Orchidacearum 7 Plate 713 Hagsater and Sanchez 2004 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 7 Plate 745 Hagsater and Sanchez 2004 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 7 Plate 795 Hagsater and Sanchez 2004 see recognition section; LANKESTERIANA 14(1) 2014; Orquideas, Tesoro de Colombia Vol 2 Ortiz & Uribe 2017 as E aff bicirrhatum photo ok; Icones Orchidacearum 16(1) plate 1616 Hagsater etal 2018 recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 16[1} Plate 1666 Hagsater & Sanchez 2018 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 16[2] Plate 1690 Hagsater & Sanchez 2018 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 17(1) Plate 1754 Hagsater & Jimenez 2019 see recognition section;

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