Epidendrum xanthinum Lindl. 1844 GROUP Secundum SUBGROUP Secundum
Photos by © Jay Pfahl
and
Common Name The Yellow Epidendrum
Flower Size 1" [2.5 cm]
Found in Colombia and Brazil as a large to giant sized, cool to cold growing terrestrial reedstem at elevations of 1500 to 2200 meters with an elongated, canelike, stem, carrying alternating, linear leaves and blooms in the spring and fall on a to 2' [60 cm] long, inflorescence with the flowers clustered in a ball at the apex.
"Epidendrum xanthinum ispart of GROUP Secundum SUBGROUP Secundum characterized as a subgroup by the bicallose lip with a central, narrow, long, wavy keel, the column is apically high and the anther is generally decumbent. The species described from Minas Geraes, Brazil, which has yellow flowers, the margins of the larger lip .28 to .32 x .36 to .4" [7 to 8 x 9 to 10 mm], spreading flat, and deeply dentate. It is color-wise very similar to E aura-usecheae is lithophytic and the margins of the lip deeply fimbriate with the fimbria bent in all directions, giving an impression of total disorder; the column wings are prominent, bent upwards and apically truncate, the margin irregularly dentate. Epidendrum melinanthum Schltr. described from the Valle del Cauca has a much simpler callus formed by 3 tubercles, the lip is T shaped, with a deeply dentate margin, and the mid-lobe bifid, into two square, somewhat divergent lobes with a mucro in the sinus. The more common species in the area north of Bogotá is the purple-pink Epidendrum arachnoglossum Rchb.f.. Epidendrum ibaguense has orange colored flowers, shorter leaves, ca. 1.4 to 2.8" [3.5 to 7 cm] long, the lateral lobes of the lip are semi-ovate with the margin lacerate, and the mid-lobe is cuneate with the dentate margin." Adapted from E aura-usechea Plate 1410 Hagsater etal 2013
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Die Orchideen Schlechter 1915; Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 7: 253 Schlechter 1920; Atlas des Orchidees Cultivees Constantin 1920 drawing fide; Orchids of Peru Vol 2 Schweinfurth 1959; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965; Orchidaceae Brasilense Band 1 Pabst & Dungs 1975 drawing fide; Native Colombian Orchids Vol 5 COS 1994 photo ok; Orchids of the High Mountain Atlantic Rainforest in SE Brazil Warren & Miller 1994; The Organ Mountain Range Its History and its Orchids Miller, Warren, Miller & Seehawer 2008 drawing/photo fide; Icones Orchidacearum 14 Plate 1410 Hagsater & Santiago 2013 See recognition section; Orchid Digest Vol 81 #2 2017 photo fide;
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