Epidendrum cirrhohirtzii Hágsater & E.Santiago 2010 GROUP Pseudepidendrum SUBGROUP Paniculatum

TYPE Drawing by © Jimenez and The AMO Herbaria Website

THROUGH

Common Name Hirtz's Tendrilled Epidendrum [refers to the lip apex and the orchid's discoverer Alexander Hirtz Ecuadorean current]

Flower Size .4" [1 cm]

Found in northwestern Ecuador on the Pacific coast of the Andes at elevations of 600 to 1300 meters as a warm to cool growing epiphyte with simple, cane-like stems basally terete, slightly laterally compressed towards the apex, thin, erect to slightly arching stems carrying 7 to 11, all along the stem, articulate, alternate, unequal in size, lower ones smaller, lanceolate acuminate, margin entire leaves that blooms in the fall through spring on a terminal, erect, racemose to paniculate, peduncle subterete, erect, with 3 to 5 tubular, acuminate, progressively smaller bracts, rachis thin, straight, 4" [10 cm] long overall, simultaneously 6 to 25 flowered inflorescence with shorter than the ovary, linear-lanceolate, acuminate, amplexicaul floral bracts and carrying resupinate, white flowers with pale greenish-yellow tepals.

"Epidendrum cirrhohirtzii belongs to the GROUP Pseudepidendrum which is characterized by caespitose plants, cane-like stems, acute to acuminate leaves, usually apical inflorescence, the filiform petals and the lip usually 3-lobed with 3 parallel fleshy keels, the apical lobe often bifurcate, the “bird-wing” type pollinia, and SUBGROUP Paniculatum , which has green and white flowers, often marked with purple on the disc of the lip and apex of the column. The species is recognized by the small, greenish yellow flowers, the lip and apical half of the column white, immaculate, with a single callus, bilobed at the apex. Epidendrum cirrhochilum F.Lehm. & Kraenzl. has a many flowered, paniculate inflorescence, the flowers also green and white, but with a circular purple mark surrounding the disc, and a single, broad callus. Epidendrum cirrhochiloides Hágsater & E.Santiago from Panama has elliptic leaves and larger flowers, sepals .44 to .48" [11 to 12 mm] long, a bicallose lip and similar cirrhose lobes of the lip, which is also marked with purple." Hagsater etal 2010

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Icones Orchidacearum 13 Plate 1307 Hagsater & Santiago 2010 See Recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 13 Plate 1318 Hagsater & Santiago 2010 See recognition section; *Icones Orchidacearum 13 Plate 1319 Hagsater & Santiago 2010 Drawing fide

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------