Epidendrum pachacutequianum Hágsater & Collantes 2006 GROUP Kalopternix SUBGROUP Serpens

TYPE Drawing by © Collantes and The AMO Herbaria Website

Common Name The Pachacuteq Epidendrum [The Ninth Inca of the Hanan Dynasty, builder of Macu Picchu and the Qoricancha temple in Cusco]

Flower Size .6” [1.5 cm]

Found in Cusco Department of Peru near Machu Picchu in cloud forests at elevations of 2900 to 3000 meters as as miniature sized, cold growing epiphyte with somewhat thickened, terete, short pseudobulbs carrying 1 to 2, aggregate at the apex, erect, fleshy, thick, coriaceous, oblong, rounded, margin entire leaves that blooms in the winter on a terminal, racemose, subsessile, erect, producing new racemes in time, peduncle very short, completely enveloped by 4 prominent, imbricating, tubular bracts, successively 4 to 5 flowered inflorescence with shorter than the ovary, widely triangular, acute, pink colored floral bracts and carrying non-resupinate, long lasting flowers with the sepals and petals grayish pink to pale copper pink, lip pink to creamy green and the column creamy green with fucshi spots dorsally at the base.

"Epidendrum pachacuteqianum belongs to the GROUP Kalopternix SUBGROUP Serpens, characterized by the reduced rhizomatous, aggregate pseudobulbous stems with one or few fleshy-coriaceous leaves, and an apical, sessile inflorescence without spathacecous bracts, carrying compact, star-shaped flowers, often burgundy red in color, lip entire, more or less cordiform. The species is recognized by the large, single, erect leaf per stem, the small, non-resupinate, successive flowers, sepals .24 to .32" [6 to 8 mm] long, the cordiform, acuminate, ecallose lip, the petals oblong- lanceolate, about half as wide as the sepals; the margin of the lip and petals is minutely papillose. It is somewhat similar to Epidendrum serpens Lindl. which has a triquetrous capsule, smaller leaves, 32 to 37 x 10 to 12 mm, and somewhat smaller flowers the sepals 5.5 to 6 mm long, the margin of the lip is minutely dentate, Epidendrum platyphylloserpens Hágsateris smaller overall and pendent growing, leaves 32 to 47 x 17 to 22 mm, sepals 8.5 mm long, with the lip cordiform, rounded and shortly apiculate." Hagsater etal 2006

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI * Icones Orchidacearum 8 Plate 864 Hagsater & Collantes 2006 drawing fide; Icones Orchidacearum 14 Plate 1466 Hagsater & Sanchez 2013 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 17(1) Plate 1765 Hagsater & Jimenez 2019 see recognition section;

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