Epidendrum guaridense Hágsater & E.Santiago 2010 GROUP Pseudepidendrum SUBGROUP Paniculatum

TYPE Drawing by © Jimenez and The AMO Herbaria Website

Common Name The Monte La Guardia Epidendrum [A Mountain in Valle de Cauca Colombia]

Flower Size .6" [1.5 cm]

Found in Valle de Cauca department of Colombia on the eastern slope of the Cordillera Occidental at elevations around 1950 to 2000 meters as a large sized, cool to cold growing epiphyte with cane-like, simple, terete, thin, straight stem carrying 11 to 12, held in the apical 2/3's of the stem alternate, articulate, erect spreading, unequal in size, basally smaller, narrowly oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, subcoriaceous, margin entire leaves that blooms in the fall on a terminal, without a spathe, racemose, erect, occuring only once, peduncle laterally compressed, thin, straight, enveloped by 2 tubular, acuminate bracts, lax, successively several, 23 to 27 flowered inflorescence with shorter than the ovary, narrowly triangular, acuminate, amplexicaul floral bracts and carrying resupinate flowers with the sepals dorsally light green, ventrally pale violet, the lip white and the disc lilac.

"Epidendrum guaridense belongs to the GROUP Pseudepidendrum which is characterized by caespitose plants, cane-like stems, acute to acuminate leaves, usually apical inflorescence, the filiform petals and the lip usually 3-lobed with 3 parallel fleshy keels, the apical lobe often bifurcate, the “bird-wing” type pollinia, and SUBGROUP Paniculatum , which has green and white flowers, often marked with purple on the disc of the lip and apex of the column. The species is recognized by the narrowly oblong-lanceolate leaves, the racemose, erect inflorescence, small flowers with sepals .24 to .28" [6 to 7 mm] long, green outside, inside pale violaceous, the lip white with the disc lilac, and prominent horn-like calli. Epidendrum spathatum Schltr. has very similar horn-like calli, but the flowers are orange with the disc yellowish, the inflorescence paniculate and many flowered, and the flowers are larger with sepals .4 to .48" [10 to 12 mm] long. Epidendrum paniculatum. has a many-flowered, paniculate inflorescence, the flowers larger, the lip much wider with a pair of prominent calli, but these are not hornlike. Epidendrum aguirrei Hágsater has a racemose inflorescences, the flowers very similar in size and color, but the lip has a single, wide callus, and the disc is 5-keeled." Hagsater etal 2010

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Icones Orchidacearum 13 Plate 1336 E. Hágsater & E. Santiago 2010 photo/drawing fide; Orchids of the Department of Valle De Cauca Colombia Vol 2 Kolanowska, Hagsater etal. 2014 drawing/photo fide

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