Epidendrum negropautense Hagsater & Medina 2020 GROUP Negropautense

LCDP Photo by © H. A. Medinaand Icones Orchidacearum 18(1) plate 1828 2020

Common Name The Rio Negro & Rio Paute Epidendrum

Flower Size .6" [1.5 cm]

Found in Morona-Santiago Province of southern Ecuador growing below the canopy of large trees among lichens and moss in primary forest at about 800 meters as a small sized, warm growing, caespitose epiphyte with straight, terete, thin stems and carrying 7 to 10, distributed all along the stem, , lanceolate-elliptic, acute, fleshy, dark green, appearing waxy, with one vein prominent running the length of the blade, margin entire, spreading leaves that blooms in the fall and winter on a terminal, without a spathe, longer than the apical leaf, erect, peduncle 2.16 x .8 to .12" [5.4 x .2 to .3 cm long, thin, terete, provided with two prominent, arched, apex acute, the lowest tubular along the basal half, ancipitose bracts, rachis 3.2 x .8 to .12" [8 x .2 to .3 cm, slightly sinuous, terete, racemose, laxly, simultaneously 8 to 14 flowered inflorescence with m, the lowest about as long as the ovary rapidly decreasing in size to much shorter than the ovary florala bracts and carrying non-resupinate, non-fragrant flowers.

"Epidendrum negropautense does not fit well in any known group, we thus propose a new GROUP Negropautense which is recognized by the sympodial, caespitose plant, the simple, erect inflorescence lacking spathes but with two large bracts on the somewhat long peduncle, inflorescence flowering only once, flowers non-resupinate, with a large 3-lobed lip, and the pollinia unequal, the inner pair smaller, and each pair compressed and flat on the inner face. The new species has green to brown, flowers sparsely spotted with red-brown, the deeply 3-lobed lip yellow, the disc and calli spotted with wine-red, the calli fleshy, thick, parallel, with a prominent mid-rib that thickens beyond the calli and does not go beyond the disc of the lip at the base of the mid-lobe. At first sight it is reminiscent of Epidendrum pseudosarcoglottis Hágsater & Dodson of the GROUP Mancum SUBGROUP Mancum due to the plant habit and non-resupinate green flowers, with a white column lip, the lip marked with purple dots, but that group of species has prominent narrow spathes, and the lip is much reduced and fleshy. The mid-lobe is reminiscent of Epidendrum xelidonourum of the GROUP Biccirhatum , but the inflorescence of that species is short and compact, sub-corymbose, producing successive racemes over several years, the flowers resupinate, pale greenish white to pale ochre, column and lip white, and the lobules of the mid lobe are linear-triangular, acuminate, arching, divaricate." Hagsater etal 2020

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Icones Orchidacearum 18(1) plate 1828 Hagsater & Santiago 2020 Photos fide

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