Epidendrum coxianum Rchb.f. 1877GROUP Excisum SUBGROUP Leucochilum

Photo by © Eric Hunt

Drawing

Drawing by © Jimenez, Hágsater & E.Santiago and The AMO Herbario Website

Common Name Cox's Epidendrum [English Orchid Enthusiast later 1800's]

Flower Size1 1/5" [3 cm]

Found in southern Ecuador on the eastern slopes of the Andes in wet montane forests at elevations of 1200 to 2600 meters as a small sized, cool to cold growing epiphyte with erect, slender, cane-like stems enveloped by scarious sheaths and carrying two apical, elliptic, coriaceous, apically obtuse, basally acute leaves and blooms in the winter on a terminal, 8" [20 cm] long, 4 to 6 flowered, racemose inflorescence enveloped basally by a single, expanded, scarious sheath with the simultaneously opening flowers subtended by a triangular bract.

"Epidendrum coxianum is very distinct, and cannot be confused with any other species in the neotropics. It belongs to the GROUP Excisum SUBGROUP Leucochilum characterized by the caespitose habit, erect stems with several fleshy leaves, a spathaceous bract, and the inflorescence with numerous star-like flowers, with narrow sepals and petals and a prominent lip. The species is recognized by the tall, terete, cane-like stems, with a pair of elliptic-orbicular, coriaceous leaves, an erect, lax-flowered, racemose to paniculate inflorescence with large, simultaneous flowers, the petals much reduced, hair-like, and a suborbicular lip at the end of an upright, sigmoid column; the lonely spathaceous bract is small. The species nearest to it is Epidendrum lehmannii Rchb.f., from the eastern slopes of the Andes in southern Ecuador where they are sxmpatric and northern Peru, which has the stems laterally flattened above, 2 to 5 leaves distributed towards the apical 1/3 of the stems, the leaves elliptic, .56 to 1.04" [14 to 26 cm] long, a prominent spathaceous bract.28 to .68" [7 to 17 cm] long, and the flowers star-like, the sepals and petals similar, and the lip 3-lobed, with a narrow, triangular midlobe." Hagsater etal 2006

Synonyms Epidendrum dalstromii Dodson 1984

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 919 Dodson 1984 as E dalstromii drawing fide; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 2 Dodson 2001 photo as E dalstroemii photo fide; Icones Orchidacearum 7 Plate 708 Hagsater and Sanchez 2004 as E dalstroemii see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 8 Plate 820 Hagsater 2006 drawing fide

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