TYPE Photo by © Á. J. Pérez/TYPE Drawing by R. Jiménez M. and The AMO Herbario Website
Common Name The Silver Mountain Epidendrum [Refers to the Cerro Plateada in southern Ecuador]
Flower Size 1.2" [3 cm]
Found in Zamora Chinchipe province of Ecuador on the highest point of the Cordillera del Cóndor on an Andean tepui of sandstone among herbaceous “paramuna” vegetation and low, dense brush dominated by terrestrial bromeliads and grasses growing directly on sandstone and sandy acid soil at an elevation around 2850 meters as a medium sized, cold growing lithophyte with the primary stem 1.76 x .16 to .2" [44 x 0.4 to 0.5 cm], branches 4 to 4.8 x .16 to .2" [10 to 12 x 0.4 to 0.5 cm], cane like, erect, terete, thin, the base covered by sheaths .24 to .72" [6 to 18 mm] long, tubular, non-foliar sheaths and carrying 15 on the primary stem, distributed along the apical half of the stem, 9 to 12 on the branches, distributed throughout, alternate, sub-spreading, coriaceous, provided with tubular, minutely striated sheaths; blade all similar in size and shape, ovate, apex obtuse, minutely apiculate, margin entire, slightly revolute leaves that blooms in the winter on a terminal, erect, without a spathe, peduncle very short, rachis sessile, slightly flexuous, 1.28 to 1.92" [3.2 to 4.8 cm] long including the flowers, apical, racemose to sometimes 2-branched, erect, laxly successivley few to 19 flowered inflorescence with longer than the ovary, widely triangular, acuminate, embracing, slightly retrorse floral bracts and carrying non-resupinate, red flowers with fragrance not registered.
"Epidendrum montiargentatum belongs to the GROUP Aquaticum which is characterized by the monopodial, branching habit, the distichous and erect arching-nutant inflorescence, fleshy flowers, and the disc of the lip and/or nectary often pilose. The new species is recognized by the red flowers, leaves .54 to .92" x ,28 to .48" [1.3 to 2.3 x 0.7 to 1.2 cm], ovate, floral bracts widely triangular and slightly retrorse, the lip 3- lobed with lateral lobes transversely rectangular, the corners rounded, and the single callus “U” shaped and pubescent. Epidendrum stenocalymmum is vegetatively similar but the flowers are yellow or greenish cream colored, lip entire, cuneate and apiculate, bicallose. Epidendrum neillii Hágsater & E.Santiago has oblong-elliptic leaves, greenish yellow flowers with the lip lime green, floral bracts not retrorse, and a lip entire, widely mucronate, bicallose. Epidendrum campylorhachis Hágsater & Dodson has narrowly elliptic leaves, flowers greenish yellow, floral bracts retrorse and a rachis markedly flexuous, the lip 3-lobed with the lateral lobes obovoid, and the callus is “V” shaped." Hagsater etal 2020
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Icones Orchidacearum 17(2) Plate 1781 Hagsater & Jimenez 2020 TYPE Drawing/Photo fide;
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
