Epidendrum forcipatum C.Schweinf. 1970 GROUP Anceps SUBGROUP Polyanthum

Photo by © Carlos Hajek and his Peruvian Orchid Page

Type Drawing of E pseudoanceps

Drawing by © M Alcantara and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbarium Website

Drawing

Drawing by © Lopez and The AMO Herbaria Website

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Common Name The Fork-like Epidendrum [probably refers to the mid lobe of the lip which is 2 pronged and curved]

Flower Size .7" [1.75 cm]

Found in Zamora-Chinchipe province Ecuador and Huanuco department of Peru on the Amazon slope of the Andes at elevations around 1500 meters as a medium to giant sized, cool growing epiphyte with simple, cane-like, ancipitous, erect stems carrying all along the apical 1/2, suberect, elliptic, acute, coriaceous, dorsally carinate, margin entire leaves that blooms in the late summer and early fall on a terminal, pluri-racemose, flowering repeatedly over several years and producing new racemes from the apical internodes, peduncle thin, elongate, ancipitous, enveloped completely by tubular, acute bracts, rachis terete, smooth, simultaneously 10 to 30 flowered inflorescence with much shorter than the ovary, triangular, acuminate, floral bracts and carrying resupinate, ochre yellow, non fragrant flowers.

" Epidendrum forcipatum belongs to the GROUP Anceps SUBGROUP Polyanthum , recognized by the caespitose habit, simple stems, pluri-racemose inflorescence flowering over several years, elongate racemes and fleshy flowers and linear petals. The species is recognized by the generally crisped-undulate leaves, about 10 [30] flowers of green-ochre tones, filiform petals. Epidendrum forcipatoides Hágsater, from Bahía, Brazil has relatively small plants, with smaller flowers, the obovate sepals about .24 to .26" [6.0 to 6.5 mm] long, and the margin of the leaves is not undulate." Hagsater etal 2009

"Definitely there is only one species here that looks like this concept, in Ecuador and Peru, Schweinfurth described it first as E. forcipatum, and when Bennett and Christenson described their E. pseudoanceps, they compared it only with the Caribbean E. anceps and made no mention of the earlier E. forcipatum from the same country and unfortunately without any precise locality data. They evidently did not see E. forcipatum." Eric Hagsater Pers comm 10/2020  

Synonyms Epidendrum pseudoanceps D.E.Benn. & Christenson 1998

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;, *Fieldiana Biology, Vol 33, 1st Supple. to the Orchids of Peru Schweinfurth 1970; Icones Orchidacearum 4 Plate 437 Hagsater 2001 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 12 Plate 1243 Hagsater 2009 Hagsater drawing fide Please look at synonym line

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