Epidendrum cottoniiflorum (Rchb.f.) Hágsater 1991 GROUP Diothonea SUBGROUP Diothonea
Photo by © Jay Pfahl
Photo by © Padre Pedro Ortiz
TYPE Drawing by © Jimenez, Hágsater & E.Santiago and The AMO Herbario Website
LATE
THROUGH
Common Name or Meaning The Cotton Flower Epidendrum [refers to the cotton-like appearance of the flowers]
Flower Size .6" [1.5 cm]
Found in Colombia at elevations of 1600 to 2700 meters as a small to medium sized, cool to cold growing epiphyte with a cane-like, terete, thin stem arising from the internodes of the previous stems and getting progressively shorter and carrying 3 to 12, throughout the stem, articulate, distichous, linear-lanceolate, unequally bilobed apically leaves that blooms in the fall through spring on an apical, racemose, short, nutant-arching inflorescence that blooms only once and carrying 9 to 14, simultaneously opening, resupinate flowers.
"Epidendrum cottoniiflorum belongs to the GROUP Diothonea SUBGROUP Diothonea which is characterized by the branching plants, linear lanceolate to oblong, bilobed leaves, racemose, arching-nutant inflorescence, membranaceous, rarely fleshy flowers, the entire to 3-lobed, ecallose lip with the margin erose, with or without 1 to 10 thin, smooth to erose keels, the column completely to obliquely united to the lip, the anther reniform. The species has tall plants, the inflorescence has 9 to 14 flowers, the sepals narrowly elliptic, .31" to .41" [7.7 to 10.2 mm] long, the lip is .32 to .4" [8 to 10 mm] wide, narrowly cuneate at the base and united up to half tlle column; the bottom half of the column is strongly arched forming a prominent hump. It closely resembles Epidendrum cleistocoleum Hágsater & E.Santiago which has shorter plants, a fewer flowered inflorescence, larger flowers, the sepals .36 to .48" [9 to 12 mm] long, wider lip, .48 to .64" [12 to 14 mm] wide, column nearly free, with prominent, rounded, basal wlngs, the apex of the column rounded, and a deeper cavity in the lower half of the column, to which there is access by a narrow slit which is longer, as long as the ventral surtace of the column. Epidendrum arevaloides Hagsater & Dodson has wider, narrowly ovate petals .96 to 1.56" [2.4 to 3.8 mm] wide, the lip ovate to suborbicular with the surface strongly ornamented with ancistrous trichomes; the column is thin, straight and free." Hagsater etal 2006
Synonyms *Diothonea cottoniiflora Rchb.f. 1876
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; *Native Colombian Orchids Vol 2 COS 1991 photo fide; Icones Orchidacearum 7 Plate 726 Hagsater 2004 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 7 Plate 799 Hagsater and Sanchez 2004 see recognition section; Orquideologia 24: 3 Ortiz & Hagsater 2005 photo fide; Icones Orchidacearum 8 Plate 805 Hagsater 2006 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 8 Part 5 Plate 819 Hagsater 2006 drawing fide; Orchids of the Department of Valle De Cauca Colombia Vol 2 Kolanowska, Hagsater etal. 2014 drawing/photo fide; Orquideas, Tesoro de Colombia Vol 2 Ortiz & Uribe 2017 drawing/photo fide; Orquideas de Farallones de Cali Galindo-Tarazona, Haelterman, Zuluaga Trochez and Sebastian Moreno 2020 photo fide
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