Epidendrum citrosmum Hágsater 1988 GROUP Difforme
Photo by © Hugo Caro and his Flickr Orchid Photo Website
Photo by Noble Bashor
TYPE Drawing by © Jimenez, Hágsater & E.Santiago and The AMO Herbario Website
Common Name The Lemon-Scented Epidendrum
Flower Size 1" [2.5 cm]
Oaxaca Mx., 619m elev., near Amusgos, at west end of Putla rd.,
Found on the Pacific coast of southern Mexico in tropical semideciduous and deciduous forests at elevations around 600 to 1300 meters as a small sized, warm to cool growing epiphyte with a simple, terete, slightly flexuous, cane-like stem carrying a few, narrowly elliptic, retuse, coriaceous, conduplicate below into the clasping base leaves that blooms in the winter through spring on a terminal, short, racemose, simultaneously few to several flowered, subcorymbose inflorescence carrying 5 to 20, fragrant [lemon tree], resupinate, bright green flowers.
"This species is a member of the GROUP Difforme Characterized by the caespitose, sympodial plants, fleshy, pale green to glaucous leaves, apical inflorescence, sessile, rarely with a short peduncle, one-flowered to many-flowered, and then corymbose, without spathaceous bracts, fleshy, green to yellowish-green rarely white flowers. The species can be distinguished by the terete stems, 2 to 10 simultaneous flowers, with a nocturnal odor, reminiscent to that of lemon tea, Cymbopogon citratus, 3 lobed lip, semiorbicular lateral lobes, midlobe with a short sinus forming two semiorbicular lobes, and an obsolete clinandrium. It is similar to Epidendrum chlorocorymbos Schltr., which has plants 8 to 18" [20 to 45 cm] high, elliptic leaves with obtuse to retuse apex, 5 to 20 or more flowers with a nocturnal fragrance (fermented-bread), callus subglobose, and erose clinandrium." Hagsater etal 2002
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; *Orquídea (Mexico City), n.s., 11: 25 Hagsater 1988 drawing/photo fide; Icones Orchidacearum 5 & 6 Orchids Of Mexico Parts 2 & 3 Plate 571 Hagsater, Soto 2002 drawing ok; Orchids of Mexico Hagsater, Soto, Salazar, Jimenez, Lopez and Dressler 2005; Icones Orchidacearum 9 Plate 960 Hagsater 2007 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 12 Plate 1223 Hagsater 2009 see recognition section;Guia de Orquideas de Chiapas Carlos Rommel Beutelspacher Baigts 2013 photo fide; Orchid Genera and Species in Guatemala Archila, Szlachchetko, Chiron, Lipinska, Mystkowska and Bertolini 2018
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