Epidendrum litense Hágsater & Dodson 1993 GROUP Nocturnum
Photo by Allen Black ©
TYPE Drawing by © Jimenez, Hágsater & E.Santiago and The AMO Herbario Website
Common Name The Lita Epidendrum [Town Near where Orchid Occurs]
Flower Size 1.25" [4 cm]
Found in northern Ecuador near Colombia in montane rainforests at elevations around 300 to 800 meters as a small sized, hot to warm growing epiphyte with cane-like, erect, laterally compressed, distally ancipitous, simple stems carrying 4 to 6, narrowly elliptic-lanceolate, bilobed apically, thin, ancipitous leaves held in the apical half and enveloped by tubular sheaths that blooms in the spring on a terminal, short, erect, racemose, becoming branched with age, over various seasons, successively single to several [up to 15] flowered inflorescence arising on a mature stem and carrying gardenia scented flowers.
"Epidendrum litense is part of the GROUP Nocturnum characterized by the simple stems carrying large star-shaped flowers usually with a 3-lobed lip The species can be easily recognized by the small plants and flowers reminiscent of Epidendrum nocturnum Jacq., and especially similar to those of E. minus, found in the Amazon basin (i.e., on the other side of the Andes), which has wider floral segments, the petals being some .12" [3 mm] wide, and the stems and leaves are also wider. The same holds true for E.longicolle Lindl. and Epidendrum buenaventurae F. Lehm. & Kraenzl., both of which are found further up the coast, in Colombia, can be easily distinguished by the larger habit and flowers, the leaves being: 1.2 to 3.6" x .38" [3 to 9 x 0.82] cm and the petals 1.4 to 1.6" x .12" [35 to 40 x 3 mm] long" Hagsater etal 1993
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Icones Orchidacearum 2 Plate 152 Hagsater & Dodson 1993 drawing fide; Icones Orchidacearum 2 Plate 178 Hagsater & Dodson 1993 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 3 Plate 305 Hagsater 1999 see recogntion section; Icones Orchidacearum 13 Plate 1357 Hagsater 2010 see recognition section; Orchids of the Department of Valle De Cauca Colombia Vol 2 Kolanowska, Hagsater etal. 2014 photo drawing/photo fide; Orchids of the Darien Gap Kolanowska 2014 drawing fide; Orquideas, Tesoro de Colombia Vol 2 Ortiz & Uribe 2017 drawing fide;
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