Epidendrum mainauanum Hágsater & H.Medina 2018 GROUP Amphyglottis SUBGROUP Glossaspis
Dissection photo by H Medina/Photo by A Fernandez © and AMO Herbario Website
Common Name The Mainau Epidendrum [The Island of Mainau, on Lake Constance, on the border between Germany and Switzerland]
Flower Size 1" [2.5 cm]
Found in Morona-Santiago province of Ecuador on eastern slope of the Cordillera Oriental of the Andes at elevations around 2000 meters as a small to large sized, cool to cold growing terrestrial or epiphyte with simple, cane-like, terete, erect, straight, green stems carrying 9+, distichous, distributed throughout the stem, alternate, articulate, green, unequal in size, the basal and apical leaves somewhat shorter, with tubular, minutely striated leaf sheaths, narrowly elliptic-lanceolate to lanceolate oblong, apex sub-obtuse, coriaceous, dark green leaves that blooms in the spring on an erect, terminal, without a spathe, peduncle 6" [15 cm] long, elongate, terete, covered by 5 , tubular, acute, not imbricated, brown bracts, 9 to 20" [22.5 to 50 cm] long, apical, racemose, successively 4 to 25, many-flowered inflorescence with much shorter than the ovary, linear-triangular, acuminate, embracing floral bracts and carrying non-resupinate, white flowers with a white callus, pale yellow ovary and without fragrance.
"Epidendrum mainauanum belongs to the GROUP Amphyglottis SUBGROUP Glossaspis which is recognized by the caespitose habit, simple stems, leaves oblong-lanceolate, coriaceous, bilobed and elongate peduncle of the erect, racemose inflorescence, the flowers nonresupinate, the callus simple, elongate, fleshy, sulcate towards the base. The new species is recognized by the pure white flowers, with the large callus white, flowers large with sepals .ñ88" [22 mm] long, straight, petals 3-veined, .64" [1.6 mm] wide, lip has short sub-quadrate lateral lobes that are only about ¼ the length of the entire lip, sub-quadrate to sub-rhomboid, apex acute. It very much resembles Epidendrum glossaspis, which, however, has rose-purple flowers, with a white callus, spreading, 1.04 to .35" [26 to 33 mm] long sepals, straight petals, linear-triangular .04" [1 mm] wide at the base, and the lip formed by 3, sub-parallel lobes, the lateral lobes about half as long as the entire lip, sub-rhombic, acuminate. Epidendrum glossapis has been confused with E. blepharoclinium Rchb.f. is quite similar in color, but the lip is wider in all its parts, the mid-lobe rhombic, about as wide as it is long, the petals as wide as the sepals which are .84 to 1.04" [21 to 26 mm] long; the callus is massive, formed by a lanceolate thickened mass, with a pair of digitate, short, upturned calli at the base, continued by two thickened, elongate processes terminating in a bilobed apex, and underneath these a thickened “Y” shaped rib, the base wide, somewhat sulcate, and ending in a progressively thinner mid-rib that reaches the apex of the mid-lobe of the lip. Epidendrum hookerianum Rchb.f. is similar but the sepals and petals are very narrow, the lateral lobes are semi-ovate, deeply fimbriate towards the apex of the outer margin, and the mid-lobe is linear-lanceolate, the margin sub-dentate and has a mid-rib running down the middle." Hagsater etal 2018
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Icones Orchidacearum 16[1] Plate 1606 Hagsater & Santiago 2018 See recognition section; ">Icones Orchidacearum 16(1) plate 1620 Hagsater etal 2018 in recognition section; *Icones Orchidacearum 16[1] Plate 1639 Hagsater & Santiago 2018 Photo fide
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
