Epidendrum echinatum Lřjtnant 1977 GROUP Bambusiforme
Photos by Alexi Tretyakov and The Species Identification Task Force Website
TYPE Drawing by © Jimenez, Hágsater & E.Santiago and The AMO Herbario Website
Common Name or Meaning The Hedge Hog-Like Epidendrum [refers to the echinate petioles, ovaries and sepals]
Flower Size .8" [2 cm]
Found in Ecuador in wet montane cloud forests on rocky slopes at elevations of 600 to 950 meters as a small to giant sized, warm growing terrestrial with an erect, cane-like stem carrying several distichous, basally clasping, elliptic-lanceolate, acute leaves held in the upper half of the stem and blooming throughout the year on part of the leafless stem and all between the leaf axils on many, short, capitate inflorescence each carring 5 to 6 flowers held in a dense cluster.
"Epidendrum echinatum belongs to the GROUP Bambusiforme which is characterized by the caespitose habit, tall, bamboolike canes with numerous long, acuminate leaves, and the numerous lateral, racemose inflorescences. The species is recognized by the narrowly obovate leaves, the short, dense inflorescences .8 to 1.22 [2 to 3 cm] long, producing roots at the base of each inflorescence, the greenish white, small flowers with sepals .28" [7 mm] long with the equinate sepals and ovary, the lip clearly 3-lobed. Epidendrum bambusiforme Kraenzlin has narrowly lanceolate leaves, greenish brown sepals and petals with the column and lip white, often spotted with light brown dots, the midlobe of the lip is deltate, sepals .42" [13 mm] long. Epidendrum bambusitricolor Hágsater & Collantes is endemic to Peru, has large plants, stems to 140" [3.5 meter] tall, leaves narrowly lanceolate, long inflorescences 3.8 to 6.8" [9.5 to 17 cm] long, unornamented sepals and petals, and larger, fleshy flowers with sepals .5 to .52" [12.5 to 13 mm] long, the flowers are green and white with a deep purple blotch on the disc of the lip. Epidendrum megalobambusiforme Hágsater & M.Villafuerte has still taller plants, to 200" [5 meters] tall, narrowly lanceolate leaves and elongate inflorescences 2.8 to 8.8" [7 to 22 cm] long, glabrous sepals, delicate flowers green with the white lip with pale purple dots and lines on the disc and the apex of the column, and prominent, sub-orbicular calli, with the lip strongly convex. Epidendrum muricatoides Hágsater & Dodson has similar flowers and ornamentation on the sepals and ovary, but the inflorescence is strictly apical and paniculate, and belongs to the GROUP Goodspeedianum" Hagsatter etal 2013
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Bot Notiser 130 Lojtnant 1977 Drawing fide; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 079 Dodson 1980 drawing ok; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 2 Dodson 2001 drawing ok Dodson has a split midlobe to the lip otherwise ok; Icones Orchidacearum 9 Plate 945 Hagsater 2007 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 14 Plate 1425 Hagsater 2013 Drawing/photo
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