Epidendrum arevaloi (Schltr.) Hágsater 1991 GROUP Diothonea SUBGROUP Diothonea
Photo by © Alexander Hirtz
Plant in situ Putumayo Colombia
Plant in situ Putumayo Colombia
Photos by © Jay Pfahl
Photo by © Joseph Dougherty
Drawing by © Jimenez, Hágsater & E.Santiago and The AMO Herbario Website
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Common Name Arevalo's Epidendrum [Ecuadorian Orchid Collector early 1900's]
Flower Size 3/4" [2 cm]
Found in Colombia and Ecuador at elevations around 2100 to 2680 meters, this one above Bogota Colombia, as a small to giant sized, cool to cold growing epiphyte and rarely terrestrial with cane-like, terete stems that branch from the mature apice and carrying 5 to 8, erect, coriaceous, narrowly lanceolate, unequally bilobed, minutely apiculate leaves that are held in the apical half that blooms from late spring to fall on a terminal, arching, successively many flowered, racemose inflorescence with progressively shorter, triangular, acuminate floral bracts carrying 6 to 9, simultaneous flowers.
"Epidendrum arevaloi belongs to the GROUP Diothonea SUBGROUP Diothonea which is characterized by the branching plants linear-lanceolate to oblong leaves, the apex bilobed, racemose, arching-nutant inflorescence, membranaceous flowers (rarely fleshy), the entire to 3-lobed, ecallose lip with the margin erose and with or without 1 to 10 thin, smooth to erose keels, the column completely free to obliquely united to the lip, the anther reniform. Epidendrum arevaloi is recognized by the long stems, several-branched towards the apex, narrowly lanceolate leaves, the short inflorescence with 6 to 9 yellowish brown flowers with reddish veining, narrowly lanceolate, acute petals, ovate lip with 9 to 10 minutely serrulate keels, and ornamented with ancistrous trichomes towards the apical half, the free, .32" [8 mm] long column with a pair of rounded wings towards the basal half. Epidendrum arevaloides Hágsater & Dodson has a many-flowered inflorescence carrying up to 17 smaller flowers, the narrowly ovate, obtuse petals .28 to .38" [.7 to 9.5 mm] long, the lip with 6 to 7 erose, inconspicuous keels, and the apex slightly retuse with. the column .2" [5 mm] long. Epidendrum cleistocoleum Hágsater & E.Santiago has shorter plants, linear-Ianceolate petals .32 to .428" [8 to 10.7 mm] long, a 3-lobed lip wlth the midlobe shorter than the lateral lobes, and 5 central keels with multiple lateral, thickened veins bifurcate towards the apex, the column is arched at the base and the nectary forms a narrow cavlty at the base of the column. Epidendrum megalospathum (Rchb.f.) Garay & Dunsterv., has a similarly free column, but belongs to a different group with very different plant architecture and a prominent spathaceous bract." Hagsater etal 2006
Synonyms *Diothonea arevaloi Schltr.1924
ReferencesW3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 27: 61 Colombia Schlechter 1924 as Diothonaea arevaloi; Native Colombian Orchids Vol 2 COS 1991 photo fide; Icones Orchidacearum 7 Plate 706 Hagsater 2004 see recognition section; Orquideologia Vol 24 #1 2005 photo fide; Icones Orchidacearum 8 Plate 809 Hagsater 2006 drawing fide; Icones Orchidacearum 15 [1] Plate 1508 Hagsater & Sanchez 2015 see recognition section; Orquideas, Tesoro de Colombia Vol 2 Ortiz & Uribe 2017 photo/drawing fide;
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