Epidendrum lacustre Lindley 1853 GROUP Excisum SUBGROUP Leucochilum
Photo by © David Hearsey
Photo by © Paul Greenough
Drawing by © Jimenez, Hágsater & E.Santiago and The AMO Herbario Website
to 
Common Name The Lakeside Epidendrum
Flower Size 3" [7.5 cm]
Plant photoed in Nicaragua, on Volcan Mombacho, but also found in Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela in montane rain forest or cloud forest at elevations of 700 to 2700 meters as a small to large sized, warm to cold growing epiphyte or terrestrial with a compressed, elongate stem completely enveloped by basally clasping, alternate, leaf bearing sheaths carrying, elliptical leaves that blooms in the spring on a terminal, erect, 4" [10 cm] long, several [5 to 15] flowered, racemose inflorescence arising from a green spathe with the night scented flowers held in an apical cluster.
Differs from others by the erect plants with coriaceous leaves all along the stem, a peduncle enveloped by large sheaths and flowers with the tepals yellow-green, the column and trilobed lip are white, the lateral lobes of the lip are dolabriform to semi-orbicular and the median lobe is triangular acuminate.
"Epidendrum lacustre belongs to the GROUP Excisum SUBGROUP Leucochilum , characterized by the caespitose plants with cane-like, erect stems, fleshy leaves, the base of the inflorescence with 1 to 2, spathe-like bracts, star-shaped flowers with narrow sepals and pctals, and a prominent, acuminate, lip. The species is recognized by the laterally compressed to ancipitose stems, generally wide, occasionally imbricating leaves, to .28" [7 cm] wide, racemose, 5 to 15-flowered inflorescence, sepals and petals green, light green to yellowish green, lip, calli and column white, the midlobe rarely green, the lip obscurely to clearly 3-lobed, without deep sini separating the midlobe from the lateral lobes, disc of the lip with a central keel running down to the midlobe. Epidendrum leucochilum Link, Klotzsch & Otto, ranges in the Andes of Venezuela to southern Ecuador on the western Andes, has terete to somewhat compressed, but not ancipitose stems, coriaceous leaves, and the 3-lobed lip is divided by deep sini, the lateral lobes transversely ovoid, and the midlobe ligulate, acute. Epidendrum lehmannii Rchb.f. similar to the latter species, ranges on the eastern Andes of Ecuador and Peru, has few, very wide leaves and smaller flowers. The star-shaped flowers are reminiscent of Epidendrum nocturnum Jacq. which lacks spathaceous bracts, and produces several, distichous, apical inflorescences which develop one flower at a time over several years." Hagsater etal 2008
Synonyms Epidendrum leucochilum Lindl. 1846; Epidendrum obesum Ames 1923
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 6: 70 Schlechter 1919; Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 19: 40. Costa Rica Schlechter 1923 as E obesum; The Genus Epidendrum Ames 1936 as Epidendrum obesum; The Orchids of Panama L.O. Williams & P Allen 1946 as E obesum; Ceiba Vol 5 No 1 L O Williams 1956 as E obesum; Flora de Venezuela Foldats Volumen XV Part 3 1970 drawing fide; Fieldiana Biology, Vol 33, 1st Supple. to the Orchids of Peru Schweinfurth 1970; Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated Vol 5 Dunsterville & Garay 1972 drawing fide; Orquideologia Vol 12 No 3/4 1977/8 as E obesum photo fide; Bot Notiser 130 Lojtnant 1977; Orchids of Venezuela, An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 1 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 drawing fide; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 721 Dodson 1982 drawing fide; Selbyana Vol 10 Orchids of Central America Hamer 1988 drawing fide; Field Guide to the Orchids of Costa Rica and Panama Dressler 1993; Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 1 Ramiro and Carnevali 2000 drawing fide; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 2 Dodson 2001 photo fide; Orquideas Nativas del Tachira Cesar Fernandez 2003 photo fide; Manual de las Plantas de Costa Rica Vol 3 Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003; Flora's Orchids Nash & La Croix 2005 photo fide; Vanishing Beauty, Native Costa Rican Orchids Vol 1 Pupulin 2005 photo fide; Icones Orchidacearum Vol 11 Plate 1135 Hagsater & Sanchez 2008 drawing fide; Orchid Species of Peru Zelenko Bermudez 2009 photo fide; Icones Orchidacearum Part 12 Plate 1260 Hagsater 2009 see recognition section; Orchids of Costa Rica Vol 1 Morales 2009 photo fide; Orchids of the Department of Valle De Cauca Colombia Vol 2 Kolanowska, Hagsater etal. 2014 drawing/photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 85 #10 2016 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 86 #5 2017 photo fide; Orquideas, Tesoro de Colombia Vol 2 Ortiz & Uribe 2017 photo fide; Orchid Genera and Species in Guatemala Archila, Szlachchetko, Chiron, Lipinska, Mystkowska and Bertolini 2018; AOS Bulletin Vol 88 # 1 2019 photo fide; Lankesteriana 19(1). 31 - 55 2019 photo fide; Orquideas de Farallones de Cali Galindo-Tarazona, Haelterman, Zuluaga Trochez and Sebastian Moreno 2020 photo fide
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