Epidendrum mesocarpum Hágsater 1999 GROUP Nocturnum

TYPE Drawing by © Jimenez and The AMO Herbaria Website

LATE

Common Name The Middle Fruit Epidendrum [refers to the position of the capsule in relation to the pedicel and apical neck]

Flower Size 2” [5 cm]

Found in Oaxaca and Chiapas states of Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua in pine/oak forests at elevations of 950 to 2000 meters as a miniature to small sized, warm to cold growing, caespitose epiphyte with simple, ancipitous, somewhat flexuous above stems carrying 3 to 5, all along the upper 1/2 of the stem, ovate, coriaceous, bilobed, somewhat concave and upright leaves that blooms in the late spring, summer and fall on a terminal, on a maturing stem, pluriracemose, hidden within the apical leaf, successively single, several flowered inflorescence with much shorter than the ovary, clasping, triangular, acute floral bracts and carrying occasionally cleistogamus flowers with the tepals yellowish green, the sepals somewhat tinged with purple outside, lip white, callus faint yellow the column white with a greenish base.

"Epidendrum mesocarpum is part of the GROUP Nocturnum characterized by the simple stems carrying large star-shaped flowers usually with a 3-lobed lip. The species is closely related to E. angustilobum and E. nocturnum Jacq., and can be recognized by the comparatively short, ancipitous stems, leaves about 2" [5 cm] wide, distributed along the apical half of the stem, the ovary longer than the leaves, 4 to 6.4" [10 to 16 cm] long, and the capsule with very long pedicel and apical neck, the former longer, the body proper only occupying about 1/3 of the length and located slightly beyond the middle of the length. Epidendrum nocturnum, the only other species found in northern Middle America, has a short ovary, shorter than the leaves, with the body of the capsule occupying nearly its entire length. E. angustilobum, found on the Antilles, as well as in Costa Rica and Panama, also has wide leaves, but these are flat and not cupped, and aggregate towards the end of the tall stems, the body of the capsule is located towards the end of the pedicel, with a very short apical neck." Hagsater etal 1999

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Icones Orchidacearum 3 Plate 355 Hagsater 1999 drawing fide; Icones Orchidacearum 5-6 Plate 578 Hagsater 2002 see recognition section; Orchids of Mexico Hagsater, Soto, Salazar, Jimenez, Lopez and Dressler 2005; Icones Orchidacearum Vol 11 Plate 1107 Hagsater & Sanchez 2008; Icones Orchidacearum 11 Plate 1121 Hagsater 2008 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 11 Plate 1148 Hagsater 2008 see recognition section; Orchid Genera and Species in Guatemala Archila, Szlachchetko, Chiron, Lipinska, Mystkowska and Bertolini 2018; Icones Orchidacearum 18(1) plate 1803 2020 see recognition section

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