Epidendrum cardiophorum Schltr. 1911 GROUP Spathiger SUBGROUP Rigidum
Photo by © Danny Lentz, plant grown by Atlanta Botanical Garden
Photo by © Azucena Briones Muńoz and her Infojardin Photo Album Website
TYPE Drawing by © Jimenez, Hágsater & E.Santiago and The AMO Herbario Website
Common Name Heart-Shaped Lip Epidendrum
Flower Size .6" [1.5 cm]
Found in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama in tropical rainforests, inundated forests, warm oak forests, mangroves, along rivers, in secondary vegatation and savannah-like vegetation at elevations of sea level to 950 meters as a small to just medium sized, hot to warm, scandent or creeping growing epiphyte with erect, cane-like, laterally compressed towards the apex stems carrying 3 to 5, rarely 6 to 7, along the apical 1/2 of the stem, subcoriaceous, smooth, elliptic to narrowly elliptic, bilobed apically, entire marginally, articulate below into the base leaves that blooms from the late spring through mid fall on a terminal, distichous, racemose, laterally compressed, ancipitose, 2" [5 cm] long, successively 7 to 10 flowered inflorescence with 1 to 3, imbricate, short, triangular-ovate, rounded to acute, conduplicate, progressively smaller, shorter to equal to the ovary in length bracts and floral bracts
CAUTION!!! For years has been given as a synonym of E rigidum but differs mostly in the calli and keels on the lip and the fact that it occurs in Central America. E rigidum is confined to the Antilles and northern South America. All references from Central America for E rigidum are most likely attributed to E cardiophorum.
"Epidendrum cardiophorum is part of GROUP Spathiger SUBGROUP Rigidum characterized by the non-secund, mostly small flowers with the lip <.48" [12 mm] long. The species is recognized by the straight, suberect inflorescence, and ,28 to .32" [7 to 8 mm] long sepals, the sepals and petals spreading, nearly reflexed, the short, triangular-ovate floral bracts which do not totally cover the ovary, and the entire clinandrium-hood. E rigidum usually has an arching inflorescence, smaller 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 , ovate, floral bracts covering the whole of the ovary, and the deeply dentate clinandrium-hood. Epidendrum angustisegmentum (L.O.Williams) Hágsater has smaller plants with 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. The lip of E. cardiophorum is somewhat variable in shape; from Mexico to Honduras it is short, semi-orbicular or cordiform with the apex rounded or retuse, wider than long, while in Costa Rica and Nicaragua the lip is usually somewhat longer than broad, ovate-cordiform and acute, very similar to that of E. angustisegmentum, but it can also be short, ovate, cordate at the base with apex rounded to retuse." Hagsater etal 2010
Synonyms
ReferencesW3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 19: 127. Costa Rica Schlechter 1923 as E rigidum; The Orchids of Panama L.O. Williams & P Allen 1946 as E rigidum drawing fide; Selbyana Vol 10 Orchids of Central America Hamer 1988 as E rigidum drawing fide; Icones Orchidacearum 3 Plate 308 Hagsater 1999 see recogntion section; Harvard Pap. Bot. 5 #2: Carnevali etal. 2001; Manual de las Plantas de Costa Rica Vol 3 Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003; Vanishing Beauty, Native Costa Rican Orchids Vol 1 Pupulin 2005 photo good; Orchids of Mexico Hagsater, Soto, Salazar, Jimenez, Lopez and Dressler 2005 photo fide; Orchids of Costa Rica Vol 3 Morales 2009 photo ok; Icones Orchidacearum 13 Plate 1311 Hagsater & Sanchez 2010 drawing fide; Icones Orchidacearum 13 Plate 1361 Hagsater & Sanchez 2010 see recognition section; Guia de Orquideas de Chiapas Carlos Rommel Beutelspacher Baigts 2013 photo fide; Algunas Orquideas de Mexico Tomo 1 Suarez 2013 photo fide; Orquideas, Tesoro de Colombia Vol 2 Ortiz & Uribe 2017 as E aff cardiphorum photo ok; Orquideas, Tesoro de Colombia Vol 2 Ortiz & Uribe 2017 photo fide; Icones Orchidacearum 17(1) Plate 1707 Hagsater & Jimenez 2019 see recognition section; Orchid Genera and Species in Guatemala Archila, Szlachchetko, Chiron, Lipinska, Mystkowska and Bertolini 2018
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