Epidendrum dejeaniae Chiron, Hágsater & L.Sánchez 2006 GROUP Difforme
Photo by © Aurélien Sambin and The Epidendrum du Groupe Difforme de Guyane Website
Photo by © Richardiana
TYPE Drawing by © Jimenez, Hágsater & E.Santiago and The AMO Herbario Website
LATE
EARLY
Common Name Mrs. Dejean's Epidendrum [French Guiana Orchid Enthusiast current]
Flower Size 1.2" [3 cm]
Found in French Guiana in lower rainforests at elevations of 5 to 10 meters as a small sized, hot growing epiphyte with simple, 6 to 10 internoded, basally thin and terete, distally wider, laterally compressed, ancipitose stems carrying 5 to 7, alternate, articulate, elliptic-lanceolate, round apically, minutely bilobed, subcoriaceous leaves that blooms in the late winter and early spring on a terminal, sessile, racemose, subcorymbose, slightly compressed, 5 to 6 flowered inflorescence with triangular, acute, progressively smaller floral bracts and carrying simultaneously opening flowers.
"Epidendrum dejeaniae belongs to the GROUP Difforme which is characterized by the caespitose, sympodial plants, fleshy, pale green to glaucous leaves, apical inflorescence, sessile, rarely wlth a short pecluncle, single flowered to corymbose, without spathaceous bracts, fleshy, green to yellowish-green rarely white flowers. The species has laterally compressed, ancipitose stems distally, the lip with the apex short, 3-lobed, the apical lobe short and wide, slightly emarginate, and the slightly arching column. It is similar to Epidendrum amapense Hágsater & L.Sánchez, distributed along the Brazilian-French Guianan border, which has 1 to 2 flowers, a 3-lobed lip with the margins erose, and the apical lobe transversely oblong, slightly emarginate and mucronate, and the clinandrium-hood irregular and deeply dentate. The flowers resemble those of E. sertorum Caray & Dunst. found on the eastern plains of Colombia and the upper Orinoco of Venezuela, at an altitude of less than 500 meters, but it has 7 to 15 white to greenish yellow flowers which are slightly larger with sepals .68" [17 mm] long, an entire, cordiform lip, the disc with many thickened veins. Epidendrum difforme Jacq. is endemic to the windward islands of the Antilles (Montserrat, Guadeloupe, Dominica, Martinique, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and Trinidad and Tobago), has 3 to 5 flowers, .6" [15 mm] long sepals, a 3-lobed lip with a square midlobe with globose calli and a low thickened keel. In French Guiana, E. cremersii Hágsater & L.Sánchez has a longer ovary 1.2 to 1.4" [30 to 35 mm], with 1 to 2, rarely 3, large flowers with sepals 1.08 to 1.2" [27 to 30 mm] long, a large, 3-lobed lip .8 to .92" x 1.4 to 1.48" [20 to 23 x 35 to 36 mm] with the lateral lobes surpassing the midlobe and separated from it by deep sinuses. Epidendrum althausenii A.D. Hawkes, ranging throughout the Amazon basin has 1 to 2, rarely 3 large flowers, the ovary 1.4 to 1.6" [35 to 40 mm] long, sepals .92 to 2" [23 to 50 mm] long and the lip much wider than long. Epidendrum oldemanii Christenson has 3 to 5 leaves, the apical ones progressively longer; a 2 flowered inflorescence, and the lip transversely reniform-bilobed, the margin sinuate, adl the column with a prominent, dentate clinandrium-hood." Hagsater etal 2006
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Icones Orchidacearum 8 Plate 826 Hagsater 2006 drawing fide; Orchids of French Guiana Szlachetko, Veyret, etal 2012 drawing fide; Richardiana Vol 2 Synopsis des espčces d'Epidendrum (Orchidaceae) de Guyane. 2- Groupe « Difforme » Aurélien Sambin, Diana Essers & Guy R. Chiron 02/26/2016 [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323998119_Synopsis_des_especes_d'Epidendrum_Orchidaceae_de_Guyane_2-Groupe_Difforme#pf8];
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