LCDP Photo by R. Gelis & A. Cisneros /Photo by © R. Gelis and The AMO Herbario Website
Common Name Gelis' Epidendrum [American born in Florida in 1972. He earned a degree in biology at Berea College, Kentucky then traveled to Latin America for a year when awarded a Watson Fellowship in 1997. The past 20 years he has been in Ecuador, studying birds, guiding birders and naturalists. His latest project: documenting orchid diversity in Ecuador using macro photography, reaching out to orchid specialists for their specialized knowledge, and sharing this documentation via iNaturalist and Facebook current]
Flower Size .4" [1 cm]
Found in northern Ecuador on Psidium guajava L. at elevations around 1300 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cool growing epiphyte with simple, cane-like, terete stems carrying 2 to 4, equally distributed throughout the stem; sheath tubular, smooth; blade oblong-elliptic, apex narrowly bilobed to retuse, sub-coriaceous, margin entire, spreading leaves that blooms in the winter on a terminal, from the mature stem, sessile, producing successively single flowered inflorescence with much shorter than the ovary, semi-ovate, apex obtuse, apiculate floral bracts and carrying resupinate, very pale green, nearly white flowers with the column somewhat darker; fragrance not registered.
"Epidendrum gelisii belongs to the GROUP Difforme which is characterized by the caespitose, sympodial plants, fleshy light green to glaucous leaves, apical inflorescence without any spathe, sessile, rarely with a short peduncle, one-flowered to corymbose, fleshy, and flowers green to yellowish-green, rarely white. The new species is recognized by the single, successive, small flowers, sepals 8.8-10.0 mm long, petals 1-veined, lip transversely elliptic, emarginate, somewhat thickened by 3 central low, wide, parallel ribs, clinandrium hood thin, incumbent, its margin minutely dentate, ovary without forming a vesicle behind the perianth. Epidendrum scharfii has 3 to 4 simultaneous flowers, pale green, never white, sepals .48 to .56" [12 to 14 mm] long, petals 3-veined, lip reniform, base cordate, clinandrium-hood prominent, margin erose-dentate. The Amazonian E. angustatum (T.Hashim.) Dodson has 3 to 4 simultaneous flowers, pale green, fragrant, sepals .4 to .58" [10 to 14.5 mm] long, 5-veined, petals 3-veined, lip transversely reniform, base cordate, without ribs, clinandrium-hood prominent, margin dentate.
NOTE: The species appears to be a twig epiphyte, flowering very young, from a single stem. No larger plants were seen in the vicinity. Epidendrum scharfii has also been collected in the same locality" Hagsater etal 2019
Synonyms *Pleuranthium cardiochilum Garay 1953 nom illegal
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Bot Notiser 130 Lojtnant 1977 drawing not see E falsigarayii; Icones Orchidacearum 2 Plate 120 Hagsater 1993 see recognition section of E carmelense; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 1 Dodson & Escobar 1994; Icones Orchidacearum 3 Plate 337 Hagsater 1999 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 4 Plate 473 Hagsater 2001 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 14 Plate 1496 Hagsater & Santiago 2013 See recognition section; Orquideas, Tesoro de Colombia Vol 2 Ortiz & Uribe 2017 photo fide; Icones Orchidacearum 17(1) Plate 1720 Hagsater & Jimenez 2019 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 17(1) Plate 1723 Hagsater & Jimenez 2019 Drawing/LCDP/photo fide
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