Epidendrum hexagonum Hágsater & Dodson 1993 GROUP Alberti SUBGROUP Albertii
Photos by © Juan Sebastian Moreno and his Flickr Orchid Photo Website
TYPE Drawing by © Jimenez, Hágsater & E.Santiago and The AMO Herbario Website
Common Name The Six Sided Lip Epidendrum
Flower Size 1" [2.5 cm]
Found in Colombia and northern Ecuador on rocky steep banks in cloud forests at elevations of 1500 to 2500 meters as a large sized, cool to cold growing lithophyte with cane-like, erect, simple, ancipitous stems carrying all along the upper 1/3 of the stem, several, elliptic-lanceolate, acute leaves that blooms at most any time of the year on a terminal and pedunculate, lateral or sessile, in the later case from the node at the base of the tubular, ancipitous leaf sheath, originally racemose, producing several, successively single, 4 to 5 flowered inflorescence with a compressed peduncle and a rachis that is completely covered by distichous, not to scarcely imbricating, ovate, conduplicate, rounded to acute floral bracts.
"Epidendrum hexagonum is part of the GROUP Alberti SUBGROUP Albertii characterized by the caespitose habit, with numerous green to purple colored leaves, the laterally flattened stems with apical, and lateral inflorescence, the apical one with an anciptitose peduncle terminating in a conduplicate, spathaceous bract somewhat larger but similar to the floral bracts, and one to several racemes of imbricating, conduplicate, rounded, bracts which produce flowers one at a time. The species is easily recognized by the light green plant, erect, caespitose habit, the stems laterally compressed, ancipitous, and the short, terminal or lateral inflorescences which produce green flowers in succession, one at a time, the segments about .68 to .76" [17 to 19 mm] long, and the lip hexagonal in outline, the base strongly cordate, the apex truncate. It is similar to E phyllocharis Rchb. f., from Panama, which is easily distinguished by the deep green-purplish plants, white flowers with pinkish-bronze suffusion on the sepals and petals and the much larger, conspicuously imbricating floral bracts." Hagsater etal 1993
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Icones Orchidacearum 2 Plate 144 Hagsater & Salazar 1993 drawing fide; Native Colombian Orchids vol 5 COS 1994 photo fide; Icones Orchidacearum 7 Plate 715 Hagsater and Sanchez 2004 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 7 Plate 724 Hagsater and Sanchez 2004 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 7 Plate 741 Hagsater and Sanchez 2004 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum Vol 8 Plate 824 Hagsater & Sanchez 2006 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum Vol 9 Plate 903 Hagsater & Sanchez 2007 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 9 Plate 973 Hagsater 2007 see recognition section; Orchids of the Department of Valle De Cauca Colombia Vol 2 Kolanowska, Hagsater etal. 2014 drawing/photo fide; Orquideas, Tesoro de Colombia Vol 2 Ortiz & Uribe 2017 drawing ok; Orquideas de Farallones de Cali Galindo-Tarazona, Haelterman, Zuluaga Trochez and Sebastian Moreno 2020 photo fide
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