Epidendrum davillae Hagsater, Santiago, & R M Cavero 2020 GROUP Diothonea SUBGROUP Diothonea

LCDP Photo by © R. M. Cavero & A. Cisneros and Icones Orchidacearum 18(1) plate 1808 2020

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Common Name Davilla's Epidendrum [Luis Davilla Estela Peruvian collector of the type current]

Flower Size .7" [1.75 cm]

Found in Cajamarca department of Peru in evergreen montane cloud forest at elevations around 3000 meters meters as a medium sized, cold, repent to pendent growing epiphyte with simple, cane-like, produced from a sub-apical internode of the previous stem, thin, straight stems with the basal portion covered by several, tubular, non-foliar sheaths and carrying up to 10, 2 to 3 persistent per stem towards apex, alternate, articulate, sub-coriaceous, lanceolate, obtuse, apex unequally bilobed, margin entire leaves that blooms in the late spring on a terminal, peduncle .2 to .28" [.5 to .7 cm] long, thin, terete, rachis arching-nutant, .6 to 1" [1.5 to 2.5 cm] long, nearly totally hidden by floral bracts, simultaneously 13 to 20 flowered inflorescence with narrowly triangular, acuminate, embracing, shorter than the ovary floral bracts and carrying resupiante, the lip always oriented towards the rachis flowers.

"Epidendrum davilae belongs to the GROUP Diothonea SUBGROUP Diothonea and subgroup which is characterized by the branching plants, the linear lanceolate to oblong, bilobed leaves, the racemose, arching-nutant inflorescence, membranaceous, rarely fleshy flowers, the entire to 3-lobed, ecallose lip with the margin erose without or with 1-10 thin, smooth to erose keels, the column completely to obliquely united to the lip, and the anther reniform. The new species is recognized by the short, many-flowered inflorescence (up to 20 flowers), sepals dorsally papillose, petals oblong, oblique, the apex obtuse, and the lip united to the basal 2/3 of the column, deeply concave, the base truncate. Epidendrum platystele has fewer flowers, up to 13, sepals dorsally smooth, petals linear-oblong with the apex truncate, and the lip base cuneate. Epidendrum sigmodiothoeum Hágsater & E.Santiago has densely, many flowered inflorescences, but the flowers are small, sepals .22 to .264" [5.5 to 6.6 mm] long, unornamented, the lip is united to the column throughout, the column widely triangular, and the disc of the lip has a pair of very short ribs. Epidendrum gastrochilum Kraenzl. has a laxly few-flowered inflorescence with up to 5 flowers, lateral sepals .56 to .6" [14 to 15 mm] long, unornamented, and the lip entire, ovate-orbicular, the base cuneate and with 6 high laminar ribs on the disc." Hagsater & Cisneros 2020

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Icones Orchidacearum 18(1) plate 1808 Hagsater & Santiago 2020 photo fide

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