Epidendrum eugenii Schltr. 1920 GROUP Diothonea SUBGROUP Gastropodium
Photo by © Rodrigo Escobar
Type Drawing by © Schlechter and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website
Drawing by © Jimenez, Hágsater & E.Santiago and The AMO Herbario Website
LATE
Common Name or Meaning Eugene's Epidendrum [Mssr. Langlasse', Belgian orchid collector late 1800's early 1900's]
Flower Size .32" [8 mm]
Found in southern Colombia at elevations around 2500 to 3000 meters as a medium sized, cold growing epiphyte with branching towards the apex, cane-like, terete, somewhat flexuous stems carrying 4 to 9 on the branches, towards the apical 2/3's of the stem, coriaceous, generally only the most apical ones are persistent, narrowly lanceolate-oblong, obtuse, smooth, minutely apiculate leaves that blooms in the late fall and winter on a terminal, occuring only once, racemose, nutant, subsessile, .8" [2 cm] long including the very short, terete, thin, naked peduncle, simultaneously 20 to 25 flowered inflorescence with much shorter than the ovary, narrowly lanceolate, long acuminate, floral bracts and carrying violet flowers with a yellow spot on the lip.
CAUTION!!! The photo is close to the species but Schlechter states that the violet flower has a yellow spot on the lip so please use with caution!! Rodrigo originally listed it in Vol 5 as E gastropodium and then a year later changed it to E cf nubigenium in Vol 6 of Native Orchids of Colombia. SOOOO Please use with caution!!!!
"Epidendrum eugenii belongs to the GROUP Diothonea , characterized by the branching habit, linear-lanceolate to lanceolate, apically bilobed leaves, arching-nutant, racemose inflorescence, membranaceous or rarely fleshy flowers, the lip entire to 3-lobed, with an erose margin, ecallose, with or without or 1 to 10 thin, smooth to erose keels, the column united to the lip from totally to obliquely to free; the SUBGROUP Gastropodium has small, usually brightly colored flowers pink to purple flowers, a very short inflorescence, lip more or less cordiform, united to the basal half of the column, the column ending in fleshy-thickened lobes. This species is recognized by the resupinate, violet flowers with a yellow disc of the lip which is entire, ovate, with three parallel keels running down the middle and without any cushion at the base. It closely resembles Epidendrum gastropodium Rchb. f. which has similarly colored flowers, but is distinguished by the cushion at the base of the lip terminatíng in three short keels. Epidendrum melanogastropodium Hágsater & Dodson is also similar, but does not have any keels on the lip, only the basal cushion, and the floral segments are generally wider and rounded and the column and anther usually black." Hagsater etal 2007
Synonyms Epidendrum nubigena Schltr. 1924
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; *Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 7: 132 Schlechter 1920 drawing fide; Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 7: 246 Schlechter 1920; Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 27: 69 Colombia Schlechter 1924 as E nubigenum; Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. Figuren -Atlas 57: 179 Schlechter 1929 drawing fide; Native Colombian Orchids Vol 5 COS 1994 #887 as E gasstropodium photo good; Native Colombian Orchids Vol 6 COS 1998 Errata; Icones Orchidacearum 7 Plate 731 Hagsater and Sanchez 2004 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 7 Plate 756 Hagsater and Sanchez 2004 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 7 Plate 758 Hagsater and Sanchez 2004 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 7 Plate 765 Hagsater and Sanchez 2004 as E nubigenum see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 7 Plate 765 Hagsater and Sanchez 2004 see recognition section; Orquideologia Vol 24 #1 2005; Orquideologia 24: 3 Ortiz & Hagsater 2005 as E cf nubigenum; Icones Orchidacearum Vol 8 Plate 836 Hagsater & Sanchez 2006 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 9 plate 935 Hagsater & Sanchez 2007 drawing fide to type; Orchids of the Department of Valle De Cauca Colombia Vol 2 Kolanowska, Hagsater etal. 2014 drawing fide to type; Orquideas, Tesoro de Colombia Vol 2 Ortiz & Uribe 2017 drawing fide; Orquideas, Tesoro de Colombia Vol 2 Ortiz & Uribe 2017 as E nubigenum drawing hmm;
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