Epidendrum flexuosum G. Mey. 1818 GROUP Secundum SUBGROUP Elongatum
Photo by © Lourens Grobler.
Photo by © Jay Pfahl
Drawing by © Jimenez, Hágsater & E.Santiago and The AMO Herbario Website
Common Name The Bent Raceme Epidendrum
Flower Size to about 1" [to 2.5 cm]
Found in Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Trinidad & Tobago, Surinam, Fr Guiana, Guyana, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Brazil in low altitude, wet tropical forests as a large sized, hot to warm growing reed stem epiphyte at an elevations of sea level to 1000 meters with erect, slender or stout, slightly compressed stems carrying erect-spreading, oblong-ligulate to linear-lanceolate, coriaceous, light green leaves that blooms at any time of the year on a simple or branched, 10" [to 25 cm] long, densely many flowered inflorescence with showy, long-lasting, non-resupinate flowers that open in succession over a long period of time.
The caespitose habit with a long peduncle, a racemose inflorescence carrying non-resupinate, reddish-magenta colored flowers with a sub-entire lip that is narrower than long and a striaght column distinguish this species from others.
"Epidendrum flexuosum belongs to the GROUP Secundum SUBGROUP Elongatum , characterized by the caespitose habit, numerous oblong, coriaceous leaves, usually elongate peduncle of the inflorescence with a short raceme of flowers, bicallose lip and caudicles of the pollinia, like a pile of roof-tiles. The species is recognized by the epiphytic plants with linear-oblong leaves, purple, nonresupinate flowers, obovate, unguiculate petals with the margin dentate, and the lip subentire, rectangular-oblong to somewhat 3-lobed. Epidendrum blepharistes Barker ex Lindl. has similar narrow leaves, but the stems are thickened-fusiform at the base, and the inflorescence is paniculate, with small white or purple pink resupinate flowers, lhe lip clearly and deeply 3-lobed. Epidendrum apatotylosum Hágsater, endemic from Costa Rica, also has non-resupinale flowers but these are purple-red, the leaves oblong-elliptic, and the lip wider, flabellate. Epidendrum radicans Pavon ex Lindl. has creeping, terrestrial plants, with the roots produced all along the stems, the resupinate flowers are orange-red, and the leaves are ovate-elliptic, the petals elliptic with an entire margin, and the lip deeply 3-lobed." Hagsater etal
Synonyms Epidendrum buenavistae Kraenzl. 1908; Epidendrum imatophyllum Lindl. 1831 mispell; Epidendrum imantophyllum Lindl. 1831; Epidendrum imetrophyllum Paxton 1837; Epidendrum lorifolium Schltr. 1922; Epidendrum palpigerum Rchb. f. 1879
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 10: 69 Schlechter 1922 as E buenavistae; Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 17: 35. Panama Schlechter 1922 as E lorifolium; Inventaire Taxominique des Plantes de la Guyane Francaise Vol II Les Orchidaceaes Cremers and Hoff 1992 as E imatophyllum; The Genus Epidendrum Ames 1936 as E imatophyllum; The Orchids of Panama L.O. Williams & P Allen 1946 as E imatophyllum; Ceiba Vol 5 No 1 L O Williams 1956 as E imatophyllum; AOS Bulletin Vol 27 No 6 1958 as E imatophyllum; Orchids of Peru Vol 2 Fieldiana Schweinfurth 1959 as E imatophyllum; Native Orchids of Trinidad Schultes 1960 as E imatophyllum; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965 as E imatophyllum; Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated Vol 4 Dunsterville & Garay 1966 as E iamtophyllum drawing fide; Flora de Venezuela Foldats Volumen XV Part 3 1970 as E imatophyllum drawing good; Orchidaceae Brasilense Band 1 Pabst & Dungs 1975 as E imatophyllum drawing fide; Die Orchideen 3 Auflage Bd 1 Sonderabdruck aus Schlechter Lieferung 9 513 - 576 Brieger, Maatsch and Senghas 1977 as E himatophyllum sic; Orquideologia Vol 12 3/4 1977/8 photo; Orquideologia Vol 14 No 1 1979; Orchids of Venezuela, An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 1 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 drawing as E imatophyllum drawing fide; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 082 Dodson 1980 as E imatophyllum drawing fide; Icones Plantarum Tropicarum Plate 719 Hamer 1982 as E imatophyllum drawing fide; ORQUIDEA (Méx.) 9(1): 1983 as E imatophyllum photo fide; The Orchids of Surinam Werkhoven 1986 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 56 No 9 1987 Photo; Selbyana Vol 10 Orchids of Central America Hamer 1988 as E imatophyllum drawing fide; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 063 Dodson & Bennett 1989 as E imatophyllum drawing fide; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Series II Orchids of Peru Plate 102 Dodson & Bennett 1989 as E imatophyllum; Orchids Travel By Air A Pictoral Safari Mulder, Mulder-Roelfsema and Schuiteman 1990 as E imatophyllum photo fide; The Manual Of Cultivated Orchid Species Bechtel, Cribb & Launert 1992 as E imatophyllum photo fide; The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Orchids Pridgeon 1992 as E imatophyllum photo fide; Icones Orchidacearum 2 Plate 193 Hagsater, Sanchez 1993 see recognition sectionas E imatophyllum; Icones Plantarum Tropicarum Plate 1525 Mora & Atwood 1993 as E imatophyllum drawing fide; Native Colombian Orchids Vol COS 1994 #867 as E imatophyllum photo fide; Manual Of Orchids Stewart 1995 as E imatophyllum; Native Colombian Orchids Vol 6 COS 1998 errata; Guatemala Y Sus Orquideas Behar & Tinschert 1998 as E imantophyllumphoto fide; Orchids of Venezuela an Illustrated Field Guide Vol 1 Romero & Carnevali 2000 drawing fide; Harvard Pap. Bot. 5 #2: Carnevali etal. 2001; Orquideas Nativas del Tachira Fernandez 2003 photo fide; Manual de las Plantas de Costa Rica Vol 3 Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003; Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana Vol 7 Steyermark, Berry, Yatskievych and Holst 2003; AOS Bulletin Vol 73 No 8 2004 as E imatophyllum; Orchids of Bolivia Vol 2 Laelinae Vasquez and Ibisch 2004 drawing/photo fide; Vanishing Beauty, Native Costa Rican Orchids Vol 1 Pupulin 2005 photo fide; Orchids of Mexico Hagsater, Soto, Salazar, Jimenez, Lopez and Dressler 2005 photo fide; Orquideas de la Serrania del Baudo Misas Urreta 2005 as E imatophyllum drawing/photo fide; ; Icones Orchidacearum Part 8 Plate 848 Hagsater 2006 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum Vol 11 Plate 1105 Hagsater & Sanchez 2008 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 11 Plate 1125 Hagsater & Sanchez 2008 drawing fide, Orchid Digest Vol 73 #3 2009; Las Orquideas del Peru Izerskyy & Bezverhov 2011 photo hmm; Orchids of French Guiana Szlachetko, Veyret, etal 2012 drawing fide;Guia de Orquideas de Chiapas Carlos Rommel Beutelspacher Baigts 2013 photo fide; Orchids of the Department of Valle De Cauca Colombia Vol 2 Kolanowska, Hagsater etal. 2014 drawing/photo fide; Orchids of the Darien Gap Kolanowska 2014 drawing fide; Orquideas, Tesoro de Colombia Vol 2 Ortiz & Uribe 2017 drawing/Photo good; Orchid Genera and Species in Guatemala Archila, Szlachchetko, Chiron, Lipinska, Mystkowska and Bertolini 2018; Icones Orchidacearum 17(1) Plate 1790 Hagsater & Jimenez 2019 see recognition section;
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