Epidendrum dialyrhombicum Hágsater & Dodson 2001 GROUP Alpicoloum SUBGROUP Dialychilum

TYPE Drawing by © Jimenez, Hágsater & Dodson and The AMO Herbario Website

LATER

Common Name or Meaning The Free Rhombic Lip Epidendrum [refers to the lip being free from the column and that the apex of the lip is rhombic]

Flower Size .4" [1 cm]

Found in Ecuador at elevations around 400 to 1650 meters as a mini-miniature to small sized, hot to cool growing caespitose epiphyte with erect, cane-like, simple, laterally compressed, flexuous, ancipitose stems carrying 4 to 6, articulate, in the upper 2/3's of the stem, linear-lanceolate, acuminate apically, grasslike, progressively larger above leaves that blooms in the fall through winter on an erect, racemose, terminal, shorter than the leaves, 1.2 to 1.4" [3 to 3.5 cm] long including the .4" [1 cm] long peduncle that is concealed by the 1 to 2, acute, longer than the peduncle spathes, simultaneously 15 to 26 flowered inflorescence with twice as long as the ovary, very thin, linear-triangular, acuminate floral bracts and carrying non-resupinate deep green flowers with a white lip.

"Epidendrum dialyrhombicum belongs to the GROUP Alpicoloum SUBGROUP Dialychilum characterized by the free, narrowly elliptic, acute lip, the filiform petals, and the short column with a prominent, irregular clinandrium prolonged on both sides at the base into wings; the stigmatic cavity occupies the apical half of the ventral surface, the basal half prominently sulcate. The species is recognized by the small-sized plants with narrow grass-like leaves up to 2.8 x .16" [7 x 0.4 cm]; the short, erect, compact inflorescence with deep green and white, globular and setaceous, nonresupinate flowers, the sepals .12 to .16" [3 to 4 mm] long, the lip free from the column, rhombic with a long, narrow claw perpendicular to the base of the lip and then turning up and parallel to it, the column with the rostellum projecting beyond the rest of the body. Epidendrum dialychilum, another of the few species of the genus with a free lip, has the lip straight and narrowly lanceolate-elliptic, and the flowers larger, the sepals being .34 to .44" [8.5 to 11 mm] long. Epidendrum pterastele Hágsater & Dodson also has a free lip, but narrowly elliptic, and the column has a prominent clinandrium which gives it a winged appearance. Epidendrum zosterifolium F. Lehm. & Kraenzl. is superficially similar in overall size, has wider leaves .2 to .48" [5 to 12 mm], white and greenish flowers with a 3-lobed lip united to the column, and a prominent funnel-shaped clinandrium.

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Icones Orchidacearum 4 Plate 419 Hagsater 2001 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 4 Plate 434 Hagsater & Dodson 2001 drawing fide; Icones Orchidacearum 4 Plate 475 Hagsater 2001 see recognition section;

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