Epidendrum gomezii Schltr. 1918
Photos by © Ron Parsons
Drawing by © Jimenez, Hágsater & E.Santiago and The AMO Herbario Website
Common Name or Meaning Gomez's Epidendrum [Mexican original Collector of species early 1900's]
Flower Size .6" [1.5 cm]
Found in Nayarit, Jalisco, Colima, Michoacan and Oaxaca states of Mexico in humid pine-oak forests at elevations around 1000 to 1800 meters as a small to large sized, cool growing epiphyte with erect to arcuate, cane-like, thin, terete stem carrying 6 to 13, held towards the apex, coriaceous-fleshy, linear-lanceolate, acute leaves that blooms in the fall and winter on a terminal, arcuate to descending, racemose, 2.4 to 4" [6 to 10 cm] long including the .8 to 1.6" [2 to 4 cm] long, erect peduncle, rachis producing other racemes from the nodes over various years, successively 2 to 8 flowered inflorescence with triangular, acute floral bracts and carrying fleshy, hanging flowers.
"Epidendrum gomezii is recognized by the thin stems bearing few leaves, clustered near the apex; the linear-lanceolate leaves are very long and narrow, 4 to 8" x .16 to .32" [10 to 20 x 0.4to 0.8 cm]. The curious, relatively large flowers have a fleshy, convex, obreniform, bilobed lip, twice as wide as long, and with the margins of the lobes revolute in natural position; each lobe is in turn bilobed. The color is also distinctive, with the tepals yellowish green, the petals spotted with purple and the lip greenish, purple spotted, sometimes so profusely that it appears reddish." Hagsater etal 2002
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; The Genus Epidendrum Ames 1936; Flora Novo-Galiciana Vol 16 Orchidaceae McVaugh 1985 drawing fide; An Introdution to the Orchids of Mexico Wiard 1987 photo fide; Icones Orchidacearum 5-6 Plate 573 Hagsater and Salazar 2002 drawing fide; Orchids of Mexico Hagsater, Soto, Salazar, Jimenez, Lopez and Dressler 2005 photo fide; Algunas Orquideas de Mexico Tomo 1 Suarez 2013 photo fide
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
