Epidendrum morganii Dodson & Garay 1980 GROUP Arbuscula SUBGROUP Incomptum
Photo/drawing by © Eric Hagsater and The AMO Herbaria Website
TYPE Drawing by © Dodson and The Plant Illustration Website
EARLY
Common Name Morgan's Epidendrum [American Co Discover of Orchid Current]
Flower Size 1.6" [4 cm]
Found in Ecuador in seasonally dry forests at elevations of 1100 to 1800 meters as a medium sized, cool growing epiphyte with canelike, successively branched once towards the apex stems enveloped completely by distichous, flattened, tubular, leaf bearing sheaths and carrying narrowly elliptic, acuminate, membraneous leaves that blooms in the spring through early summer on a terminal, without a spathe, racemose, to 2.4" [6 cm] long, successively 1 to 3, 5 to 24 flowered inflorescence with much shorter than the ovary, narrowly triangular, long-acuminate, amplexicaul floral bracts and carrying green, resupinate, morning sweet fragrant flowers with the lip tinged with purple brown.
"Epidendrum morganii belongs to the GROUP Arbuscula which is characterized by the erect habit with successive lateral growths produced from the middle of the previous growth, few leaves aggregate towards the apex of the stems, roots produced generally only from the base of the primordial stem, and the SUBGROUP Incomptum which has a short apical inflorescence with fleshy yellowish to green to violet-green to black flowers with short ovaries, the lip entire to 3-lobed. This species is recognized by the short, few-flowered inflorescences, successive, green flowers tinged with purple-brown, sepals .52 to .72" [13 to 18 mm] long, the lip widely cordiform, apiculate, with two low, laminar, divergent calli. Epidendrum ecostatum Pabst, described from Brazil, has similar but smaller flowers, and the lip lacks any calli. Epidendrum jamaicense Lindl. also has an inflated nectary, but the lip is reniform, with the apex rounded and somewhat emarginate, revolute in natural position, and the lateral sepals are aristate. Epidendrum prietoi Hágsater has been described from the same general area of Ecuador, but that species as a clearly 3-lobed lip." Hagsater etal 2013
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; *Icones Plantarum Tropicarum Plate 381 Dodson 1980 drawing fide; Native Ecuadorian Orchids vol 2 Dodson 2001 photo fide; Icones Orchidacearum 2 Plate 119 Hagsater & Sanchez 1993 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 2 Plate 145 Hagsater & Sanchez 1993 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 2 Plate 198 Hagsater 1993 see recogntion section; Icones Orchidacearum 15 [1] Plate 1541 Hagsater & Santiago 2015 drawing/photo fide; Icones Orchidacearum 16[1] Plate 1631 Hagsater & Santiago 2018 See recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 16[2] Plate 1681 Hagsater & Sanchez 2018 see recognition section;
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