Epidendrum jajense Rchb. f. 1854 GROUP Jajaense
LCDP Photo by © J. D. Edquén & A. Cisneros and Icones Orchidacearum 18(1) plate 1815 2020
Photo by © Sofia Arevalo
Photo by © Jorge Mazzotti and the Go To Peru Website
Original Drawing by © Padre Pedro Ortiz Conserved at the Herbario de la Universidad Javeriana, Bogota Colombia
Photo by Eric Hunt,plant grown by Dan Newman of Hanging Gardens.
to 
Common Name The Jaji Epidendrum [A town in Merida state of Venezuela where the type was collected]
Flower Size 5/8" [1.75 cm]
Found in Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia at elevations of 1300 to 2540 meters in wet montane forests on smooth trunked trees as a miniature to small sized, cool to cold growing epiphyte with short, gradually widening stems forming an erect, fusiform pseudobulb, enveloped basally by 2 to 3, scarious, loose, tubular, imbricating sheaths from which a single, apical, articulate, erect, coriaceous, upper side dark green, with the parellel veins clearly marked in white and reddish purple beneath, sessile, oblong-elliptical to elliptical, obtuse, margin entire, spreading, conduplicate into the apex of the stem leaf that blooms at most any time of the year on a short, peduncle .4" [1 cm] long, terete, straight, thick, unornamented, rachis .4" [1 cm] long, densely and simultaneously 3 to 8 flowered inflorescence arising on mature stems with triangukar, acuminate, embracing, shorter than the ovary floral bracts and carrying flowers clustered towards the apex and the lip always facing the axis of the inflorescence.
"Epidendrum jajense belongs to the GROUP Jajaense GROUP Jajense which is characterized by the caespitose plants with thickened stems, a single sessile leaf with the upper side dark green and the veins marked white, short racemose or sub-umbellate inflorescence with or without a spathe, with compact flowers, the lip always facing towards the axis of the raceme. Epidendrum jajense is recognized by the greenish yellow tinged pink to pink flowers, sepals .38 to .44" [9.5 to 11 mm] long, the margins revolute and thus semi-tubular, linear petals and the lip deeply 3-lobed, the lateral lobes obliquely ovate, narrow, with the apical corner acute, and the mid-lobe oblong, the apex obtuse. Epidendrum unifoliatum Schltr. is vegetatively similar, but the inflorescence has a tubular spathe covering nearly the whole peduncle, and the 3-lobed lip has wide lateral lobes, and the mid-lobe is sub-quadrate with the apex emarginate." Hagsater & Santiago 2020
Synonyms Epidendrum breviracemum C. Schweinf. 1952
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; *Bonplandia Rchb.f 1854; Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 6: 70 Schlechter 1919; Orchids of Peru Vol 2 Fieldiana Schweinfurth 1959 as E breviracemum drawing fide; Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated Vol 6 Dunsterville & Garay 1976 drawing fide; Flora de Venezuela Foldats Volumen XV Part 3 1970; Fieldiana Biology, Vol 33, 1st Supple. to the Orchids of Peru Schweinfurth 1970 as E breviracemum; Bot Notiser 130 Lojtnant 1977; Orchids of Venezuela, An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 1 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 drawing fide to 1st photo; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 084 Dodson 1980 drawing fide; Native Colombian Orchids Vol 2 COS 1991 photo ok; Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 1 Ramiro and Carnevali 2000 drawing fide; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 2 Dodson 2001 drawing fide; Orquideas Nativas del Tachira Cesar Fernandez 2003 photo fide; Machu Picchu Orchids Christenson 2003; Orchids of Bolivia Vol 2 Laelinae Vasquez and Ibisch 2004 photo fide; Orquideas, Tesoro de Colombia Vol 2 Ortiz & Uribe 2017 drawing/Photo fide; Icones Orchidacearum 18(1) plate 1815 2020 photos fide; Icones Orchidacearum 18(1) plate 1815 Hagsater & Santiago 2020 Photos fide
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