Epidendrum macrocarpum Rich. 1792 GROUP Secundum SUBGROUP Secundum
Photo by © David Morris
Photo © Jay Pfahl
to
LATER
to EARLY
Common Name The Large Fruit Epidendrum
Flower Size 1 1/2" [4 cm]
Found in Trinidad & Tobago, French Guiana, Surinam, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Brazil at elevations of 200 to 2000 meters as a medium to large sized, hot to cool growing terrestrial species with erect, 4 ft, canelike stems often with purple spotted sheaths, carrying alternate, 2 ranked, oblong, obtuse, fleshy-coriaceous, rigid, spreading horizontally leaves that blooms in the later fall through early winter on a terminal, peduncle to 10" [25 cm] long, many flowered umbelliform inflorescence carrying longlasting, successsively opening flowers arising from the tip of the mature cane.
Bright light and regular watering while growing and less in the winter before flowering November - - January.
"Epidendrum macrocarpum belongs to GROUP Secundum SUBGROUP Secundum which is characterized by the caespitose habit, simple, terete, stems, numerous, oblong-elliptic, bilobed leaves, mostly elongate inflorescence, with a raceme of successive fiowers, the lip with two calli and a prominent, flexuous keel. The species is recognized by the larger plants , usually associated with ants, has a bicallose lip and much larger, resupinate, outward facing flowers with sepals .8 to 1.4" [20 to 35 mm] long, in shades of orange and yellow. Epidendrum mimopsis has flowers being presented in one plane, as in an umbell, the lip mostly facing outwards, purple-colored with yellow calli and keel, the lip deeply fimbriate with the midlobe flabellate, barely emarginate. Epidendrum mimeticum which has slightly larger, variously colored flowers, also in one plane, but the lip facing inwards, with narrower petals and midlobe of the lip. Epidendrum thermophilum Hágsater & Dodson, from the very hot, dry valley below Ibarra, Imbabura, on the western slopes of the Andes in northwestern Ecuador has similar flowers and flower color to E mimopsis, but these are smaller, upright, non-resupinate, and larger plants which is larger overall."Adapted from Palte 761 Hagsater etal 2004
This species is often found in conjunction with ants and may benefit from their presence.
Synonyms Epidendrum ibaguense H.B.K. var schomburgkii [Lindl.] C. Schweinf. 1944; Epidendrum incisum Velloso 1854; Epidendrum schomburgkii Lindley 1838;
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Symbolae Antillanae Vol VI Orchidaceae Urban 1909 as E schomburgkii; Die Orchideen Schlechter 1915; Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 6: 72 Schlechter 1919 as E schomburgkii; Atlas des Orchidees Cultivees Constantin 1920 as E schomburgkii drawing fide; Die Orchideen der Sudamerikanischen Kordillerenstaaten IV Peru Schlechter 1921 as E brevicaule; Die Orchideen der Sudamerikanischen Kordillerenstaaten IV Peru Schlechter 1921 as E splendens; Orchids of Peru Vol 2 Fieldiana Schweinfurth 1959 as Epidendrum ibaguense var schomburgkia; Native Orchids of Trinidad Schultes 1960 as E ibaguense var schomburkii; Venezuelan Orchids Vol 2 Dunsterville & Garay 1961 as E ibaguense var schomburkii drawing fide; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965 as E schomburgkii; AOS Bulletin Vol 36 #9 1967 as E ibaguense var schomburgkia; Flora de Venezuela Foldats Volumen XV Part 3 1970 as E ibaguense var schomburkii drawing fide; Orchidaceae Brasilense Band 1 Pabst & Dungs 1975 as E schomburgkii drawing fide; Die Orchideen 3 Auflage Bd 1 Sonderabdruck aus Schlechter Lieferung 9 513 - 576 Brieger, Maatsch and Senghas 1977 as E schomburgkii drawing/photo fide; Orchids of Venezuela, An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 1 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 as E schomburgkii drawing fide; Orquideologia Vol 15 #1 Luer & Escobar 1981 as E schomburgkia ; The Orchids of Surinam Werkhoven 1986 as E schomburgkii photo fide; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Series II Orchids of Bolivia plate 0335 Dodson & Vasquez 1989 as E schomburgkii drawing fide; Native Colombian Orchids Vol 2 COS 1991 as Epidendrum incisum photo fide; Inventaire Taxominique des Plantes de la Guyane Francaise Vol II Les Orchidaceaes Cremers and Hoff 1992 as E schomburgkii; AOS Bulletin Vol 63 No 4 1994 as E schomburgkii photo fide; Native Colombian Orchids Vol 5 COS 1994 as Epidendrum incisum photo fide; Manual Of Orchids Stewart 1995 as E schomburgkii; Venezuela, Paraiso de Orquideas Romero 1997 as E schomburgkii photo fide; Harvard Papers in Botany #11 50 De Nominus Orchidaceaearum Incunabulorum Garay 1997; AOS Bulletin Vol 67#1 1998 drawing fide; Native Colombian Orchids Vol 6 COS 1998 errata - E macrocarpum = E schomburgkii; Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 1 Ramiro and Carnevali 2000 drawing fide; Botanica's Orchids Laurel Glen 2002 as E schomburgkii photo fide; Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana Vol 7 Steyermark, Berry, Yatskievych and Holst 2003; Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana Vol 7 Steyermark, Berry, Yatskievych and Holst 2003 as E splendens; AOS Bulletin Vol 73 No 8 2004 as E schomburgkii; Orchids of Bolivia Vol 2 Laelinae Vasquez and Ibisch 2004 as E incisum drawing/photo fide; ; Icones Orchidacearum 7 Plate 761 Hagsater and Sanchez 2004 as E macrocarpum see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 7 Plate 778 Hagsater and Sanchez 2004 as E macrocarpum see recognition section; Orchid Species of Peru Zelenko Bermudez 2009 photo fide; Las Orquideas del Peru Izerskyy & Bezverhov 2011 as E schomburgkii photo maybe; Orquideas de Roirama Luz & Franco 2012 photo fide; Orchids of French Guiana Szlachetko, Veyret, etal 2012 drawing/photo fide; Orchids of French Guiana Szlachetko, Veyret, etal 2012 drawing/collection sheet fide; Orchids of the Department of Valle De Cauca Colombia Vol 2 Kolanowska, Hagsater etal. 2014 drawing/photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 85 #1 2016 as E aureum photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 85 #3 2016 drawing fide; Orchid Digest Vol 83 #1 2019 photo fide
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