Epidendrum moronense Dodson & Hágsater 1989 GROUP Filamentosum
Photo by © Danny Lentz, plant grown by Atlanta Botanical Garden
Photo by © Lourens Grobler
TYPE Drawing by © Jimenez, Hágsater & E.Santiago and The AMO Herbario Website
Common Name The Morona Epidendrum [A province in Ecuador]
Flower Size 1.6" [4 cm]
Found in Ecuador in very wet montane forests at elevations of 700 to 1400 meters as a mini-miniature sized, warm to cool, pendant growing epiphyte with laterally flattened, newly arising from the base of the previous stem, barely distinguishable pseudobulb-like, green tinged with purple stems enveloped by pinkish foliaceous sheaths and carrying 1 to 4, apical, aggregate towards the apex, distichous, lanceolate-elliptic, falcate, acute, articulate, dorsally green, margin purple, ventrally purple red, margin entire leaves that blooms from fall through spring on a terminal, arising through a basal, prominent, flattened, acute, narrowly elliptic spathe, pendulous, recurved, peduncle subterete, very short, rachis sinuous, racemose, 1.2" [3 cm] long, secund always facing away from the substrate, successively 1 to 2, 3 to 7 flowered inflorescence with much shorter than the ovary, triangular, acute, amplexicaul floral bracts and carrying non-resupinate, fleshy, lustrous, greenish to pinkish or buff flowers with a white lip that is sometimes tinged with pale pink, a green column and a white anther.
"Epidendrum moronense belongs to the GROUP Filamentosum which is characterized by the caespitose habit with thickened stems, with 1 to 4 fleshy, coriaceous leaves, the inflorescence apical, distichous, with successive, nonresupinate flowers, the lip un-lobed, margin fimbriate, bicallose. The species is recognized by the thickened stems 1.6" [4 cm] long, 1 to 4, lanceolate elliptic leaves, non-resupinate flowers, greenish, to pinkish or buff, the lip white, sometimes tinged with pale pink, column green, anther white, strongly reflexed sepals and petals nearly as long as the ovary, and the lip is reniform to sub-orbicular, with the margin deeply laciniate. Epidendrum ruizlarreanum D.E.Benn. & Christenson a single, linear leaf, has white, concolor flowers, spreading sepals, petals parallel to the column, the oblong-ovate, un-lobed lip with the margin fimbriate, high, laminar calli, and 3 narrow ribs, the reniform anther is truncate." Hagsater etal 2013
Synonyms
ReferencesW3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 476 Dodson 1989 drawing fide; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 2 Dodson 2001 photo fide; Icones Orchidacearum 3 plate 362 Hagsater 2006 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 7 Plate 705 Hagsater 2004 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum Part 12 Plate 1242 Hagsater 2009 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum Part 15 [1] Plate 1543 Hagsater 2015 drawing/photo fide; Icones Orchidacearum 16(1) plate 1622 Hagsater etal 2018 in recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 16[2] Plate 1668 Hagsater & Sanchez 2018 see recognition section;
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