Epidendrum lembotylosum Hágsater & Dodson 2004 GROUP Elleanthoides SUBGROUP Rhombochilum

TYPE Drawing by Lopez and The AMO Herbaria Website

Common Name The Boat Shaped Callus Epidendrum

Flower Size .6” [1.5 cm]

Found in Morona Santiago province of Ecuador on the eastern slope of the Andes at elevations above 3000 meters as a small sized, cold growing terrestrial with suberect, scarcely branching near the apex, terete, thin stems carrying numerous on the main stem, 2 to 3 on the branches, all towards the apex, linear-lanceolate, acute, apical margin erose crenulate leaves that blooms in the fall on a terminal, paniculate, the branch short, occasionally lacking, thus racemose, arching-nutant, peduncle terete, filiform, rachis straight, successively single, 3 to 6 per raceme, with much shorter than the ovary, narrowly triangular, acute floral bracts and carrying reddish-brown violet flowers.

"Epidendrum lembotylosum belongs to the GROUP Elleanthoides SUBGROUP Rhombochilum , which is characterized by the thin, branching habit, narrow, short, subcoriaceous leaves with a crenulate margin and unequally bilobed apex, racemose, subdistichous, short inflorescence, with successive flowers, the entire lip embracing the column. The species is recognized by the relatively large, successive, reddish brown-violet flowers, the cordiform lip which is somewnat concave but does not embrace the column, and the oblong, concave, pubescent callus, flowering in April. The Peruvian Epidendrum caveroi from Condorcanqui, across the Nangaritza-Zamora River is florally quite similar, but the leaves are elliptic, acute and short, about as wide as long, the flowers slightly larger, the sepals being .48 to .52" [12 to 13 mm] long, and the lateral sepals somewhat joined to the ventral surface of the column; it flowers in August. Epidendrum spasmosum Hágsater & Dodson has non-resupinate flowers, white with the apices of the sepals pink to the whole flower greenish purple, the flowers are tightly cramped, with the lip embracing the column to leave only a round aperture through which the column may be reached for pollination, with subquadrate, erose lateral lobes of the lip and a small triangular apical lobe; the petals are linear to linear-oblanceolate, with the upper margin sinuous. Epidendrum golondrinense Hágsater & Dodson has a similar habit, but somewhat different, more, up to 13, smaller flowers with sepals .152" [3.8 mm] long, the lip 3-lobed, with the lateral lobes smaller than the midlobe. Epidendrum rhombochilum L. O. Williams is recognized by the triangular lip, two, lentil-shaped pollinia slit longitudinally down one slde and a lanceolate dorsal sepal." Hagsater etal 2004

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Icones Orchidacearum 7 plate 753 Hagsater & Dodson 2004 drawing fide;

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