Epidendrum lizethae Hágsater, Rinc.-Useche & L.Sánchez 2015 GROUP Difforme

TYPE Drawing by Jimenez and The AMO Herbaria Website

Part Shade Hot Warm LATE Fall EARLY Winter

Common Name Lizeth’s Epidendrum [Lizeth Katherine Rodriguez Colombian student of Agronomic Engineering, Photographer and Orchid Enthusiast current]

Flower Size 1.4” [3.5 cm]

Found in Boyaca and Meta departments of Colombia on the eastern slope of the Cordillera Oriental at elevations of 400 to 700 meters as a small sized, hot to warm growing epiphyte with simple, cane-like, basally terete, laterally compressed above, ancipitous, flexuous stem carrying 5 to 9, all along the stem, elliptic, retuse, coriaceous, green leaves that blooms in the late fall and early winter on a terminal, arising on a mature stem, occuring only once, sessile, subcorymbose, simultaneously 5 flowered inflorescence with much shorter than the ovary, triangular, acute, amplexicaul floral bracts and carrying resupinate, green, scentless flowers.

"Epidendrum lizethae belongs to the GROUP Difforme which is characterized by the caespitose, sympodial plants, fleshy light green to glaucous leaves, apical inflorescence without the spathaceous bract, sessile, rarely with a short peduncle, one-flowered to corymbose, fleshy, and flowers green to yellowish-green, rarely white. The species is recognized by the cane-like, laterally compressed, ancipitose, flexuous stems, 5 simultaneous, large flowers, sepals .8 to .88" [20 to 22 mm] long, lip transversely elliptic, obscurely 3-lobed, prominent, conical, divergent calli; disc of the lip with evident thickened veins, the 3 central ones prolonged to the apex, other smaller ones produced from the middle of these, mid-lobe rectangular, apiculate, small, clinandrium prominent, conical, margin dentate. It is similar to Epidendrum platychilum Schltr. which is endemic to the Pacific slope of the Andes in central Ecuador and has laterally compressed stems though not ancipitose, 3 to 5 leaves which are wider .92 to 1.36" [2.3 to 3.4 cm] wide, 1 to 2 simultaneous flowers, a short .8 to 1.8" [20 to 45 mm] long, inflated ovary, larger flowers with sepals 1.44 to 1.6" [36 to 40 mm] long, obovate petals with the margin undulate, a reniform, sub-orbicular lip with small, sub-globose calli, and the disc of the lip with numerous thickened veins. Epidendrum kerryae Hágsater & L.Sánchez a lowland species along the Pacific slope of northern Ecuador and Colombia has 1 to 2, large, flowers with sepals 1.04 to 1.12" [26 to 28 mm] long, a trigonous ovary with a vesicle on the underside, entire, sub-orbicular lip and small sub-globose calli. Epidendrum killipii Hágsater & L.Sánchez also from the western slope of the Cordillera Occidental in Colombia, has 1 to 3 flowers, sepals .8 to 1.32" [20 to 33 mm] long, a non-inflated ovary, suborbicular, entire lip, and lacks the thickened veins on the lip, calli small, sub-globose. Epidendrum dentiferum Ames & C.Schweinf. growing from Costa Rica to Colombia along the Pacific slope has smaller plants 2.8 to 6.8" [7 to 17 cm] tall, stems somewhat laterally compressed, 1 to 3, small, flowers with sepals .4 to .54" [10 to 16 mm] long, sepals and petals acuminate, lip entire, sub-orbicular, abruptly mucronate at the apex; calli small, sub-globose, disc with three prominently thickened, central ribs, and the column has a pair of laminar, lateral, lacerate apical wings." Hagsater etal 2015

Synonyms

ReferencesW3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Icones Orchidacearum 15 [1] plate 1535 Hagsater, Useche & Sanchez 2015 drawing fide; Orquideas, Tesoro de Colombia Vol 2 Ortiz & Uribe 2017 Photo fide;

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