Epidendrum morilloi Hágsater & E.Santiago 2010 GROUP Alpicolum SUBGROUP Alpicolum

TYPE Drawing by © Jimenez and The AMO Herbaria Website

Common Name Morillo’s Epidendrum [Venezuelan Orchid Collector of type species current]

Flower Size .4” [1.5 cm]

Found in Venezuela on the Atlantic slope of the Cordillera de los Andes in cloud forests at elevations of 1000 to 1600 metrers as a large sized, cool growing epiphyte with simple, cane-like, arching to somewhat hanging stems carrying 12 to 14 all along the stem, alternate, articulate, coriaceous, dorsally somewhat lustrous, lanceolate, subobtuse, margin entire leaves that blooms in the winter on a terminal, arising through a large, tubular, conduplicate, obtuse, reddish brown spathe, occuring only once, peduncle subterete, nearly totally enveloped by the prominent basal bract, similar to the spathe but smaller, paniculate, arching-nutant, subdensely, simultaneously 26 to 28 flowered inflorescence with much shorter than the ovary, linear, acuminate, amplexicaul floral bracts and carrying resupinate, fleshy flowers with the sepals and petals creamy white and the lip and the column white.

"Epidendrum morilloi belongs to the GROUP Alpicolum SUBGROUP Alpicolum which is characterized by the simple, cane-like stems, long, narrow 1 to 3 spathaceous bracts, fox-tail-like inflorescence and numerous flowers with fleshy lip. This species is distinguished by the arching-nutant stems, the paniculate inflorescence (though the branches are short and few), the creamy white sepals and petals, with a snow-white lip and column, the flowers comparatively smaller, sepals .34 to .4" [8.5 to 10 mm] long. Epidendrum kltozscheanum has erect and straight stems, a racemose inflorescence, the inflorescence more compact, with many more flowers, the margin of the lateral lobes of the lip minutely erose, and fuchsia to yellowish tinged with pink flowers, sepals .56" [14 mm] long. Epidendrum sisgaënse Hágsater, from north of Bogotá is somewhat similar, but the flowers are larger, sepals .76 to .8" [19 to 20 mm] long, green to brownish-green tinged reddish, the inflorescence arching, few-flowered, and the 3-lobed lip has a slightly erose margin, with the mid-lobe rectangular, somewhat wider than long. Epidendrum charpinii Hágsater & E.Santiago has a racemose inflorescence, ochre-colored flowers, the lip somewhat paler, with the mid-lobe of the lip somewhat apically rhombic, widened near the acute apex, sepals erect and spreading." Hagsater etal 2010

Synonyms

ReferencesW3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Icones Orchidacearum 13 Plate 1314 Hagsater & Santiago 2010 See recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 13 Plate 1343 Hagsater & Dodson 2010 See Recognition section; * Icones Orchidacearum 13 Plate 1359 Hagsater & Santiago 2010 drawing fide;

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