Epidendrum heterothoneum (Rchb.f. & Warsz.) Hágsater & Dodson 1992 GROUP Diothonea SUBGROUP Diothonea

Photo by © Lourens Grobler

LATEEARLY

Common Name The Differing Epidendrum

Flower Size .4" [1 cm]

Found in Ecuador and Peru in cold wet cloud forests at elevations of 2400 to 3200 meters as a medium sized, cold growing terrestrial with a woody, many branched stems enveloped mostly by scarious leaf sheaths and carrying linear-lanceolate, acute leaves that blooms in the late winter and early spring on a terminal, subsessile, nodding, few flowered, racemose inflorescence with minute floral bracts and nodding flowers.

"Epidendrum heterothoneum (Rchb.f. & Warsz.) Hágsater & Dodson 1992 belongs to the GROUP Diothonea SUBGROUP Diothonea which is characterized by the branching plants, linear-lanceolate to oblong, bilobed leaves, racemose, arching-nutant inflorescence, membranaceous, rarely fleshy flowers the entire to 3-lobed, ecallose lip with the margin erose, with or without 1 to 10 thin, smooth to erose keels, the column completely to obliquely united to the lip, the anther reniform. The species has larger flowers, the floral segments .6 to .64" [15 to 16 mm] long, 3-lobed lip totally united to the column which is thick and widened towards the apex. Epidendrum arevaloides has thin, terete stems, branching towards the apex, short, arching inflorescence, narrowly lanceolate leaves distributed towards the apical half of the stems, obtuse petals .27 to .4" [6.7 to 10 mm] long, sepals 3-veined, lip ovate to suborbicular, ornamented with ancistrous trichomes on the apical half, thin, straight, free column with a palr of narrow lateral wings along the basal half; the column is .2 to .24" [5 to 6 mm] long. It is similar to Epidendrum arevaloi which has larger plants, longer leaves, the veins of the floral segments marked red, larger f1owers, the acute petals, the sepals .48 to .64" [12 to 16 mm] long, the lip provided with 9 to 10 keels evidently serrulate towards the apical half. Epidendrum cochabambanum Dodson & Vásquez has linear, conduplicate leaves .08 to .12" [2 to 3 mm] wide, smaller f1owers, narrowly linear-elliptic petals, the lip totally united to the column is provided with 5 laminar, smooth keels and the column thick and widened towards the apex. Epidendrum microdiothoneum Hágsater & Dodson has a glomerulate inflorescence, ventrally thickened ovary along the apical 2/3'd, elliptic, petals 3-veined, the veins much branched, 3-lobed lip provided with 4 laminar keels, column short, .12" [3 mm] long." Adated from Plate 706 Hagsater etal 2004

Synonyms Diothonea heterothonaea Rchb.f. & Warsz. 1854

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Bonplandia Rchb.f 1854 as Diothonaea heterothonaea; Orchids of Peru Vol 2 Schweinfurth 1959 as Diothonea heterothonaea; *Orquídea (Méx.) 12(2): 296. Hagsater 1992; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 2 Dodson 2001 photo not = E arevaloides; Icones Orchidacearum Peruviarum plate 638 Bennett & Christenson 2001 drawing ok; Icones Orchidacearum 7 Plate 706 Hagsater 2004 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 7 Plate 733 Hagsater 2004 see recognition section; Orquideologia Vol 24 #1 2005; Icones Orchidacearum 8 Plate 835 Hagsater 2006 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 13 Plate 1395 Hasater & Salazar 2010 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 14 Plate 1420 Hagsater & Santiago 2013 See recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 14 Plate 1474 Hagsater & Sanchez 2013 see recognition section;

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