Epidendrum panegyricum Hágsater & L.Sánchez 1999 GROUP Difforme

TYPE Drawing by © Jimenez and The AMO Herbaria Website

LATE

Common Name The Laudat Epidendrum [A town in Dominica where the species occurs]

Flower Size 1.2” [3 cm]

Found in Dominica in the Windward Islands of the Caribbean in rain forests at elevations of 450 to 1145 meters as a miniature to small sized, warm to cool growing epiphyte with simple, cane-like, ancipitous, slightly flexuous stems carrying 5 to 9, all along the stem, subequal, elliptic to ovate, obtuse, retuse, coriaceous slightly carinate leaves that blooms in the late spring and summer on a terminal, without a spathe, on a mature stem, sessile, 1.6 to 2.2" [4 to 5.5 cm] long, simultaneously 1 to 4 flowered inflorescence with much shorter than the ovary, ovate, acute floral bracts carrying resupinate, pale green flowers.

"Epidendrum panegyricum is member of the GROUP Difforme characterized by the caespitose, sympodial plants, fleshy, pale green to glaucous leaves, apical inflorescence, sessile, rarely with a short peduncle, one-flowered to many-flowered, and then corymbose, without spathaceous bracts, fleshy, green to yellowish-green rarely white flowers. The species can be recognized by its ancipitose stems, 2 to 3 simultaneous, pale green flowers, 3-lobed lip, elliptic lateral lobes and transversely rectangular midlobe, straight, obconical column. It is somewhat similar to E. latilabrum from Brazil which has laterally compressed stems, successive, green and larger flowers, semiorbicular to subrectangular lateral lobes and subcuadrate midlobe. It differs from E. difforme from Lesser Antilles, which also has ancipitous stems, smaller plants and flowers, green flowers, lip with subquadrate midlobe and occasionally arcuate column." Hagsater etal 1999

Kew puts this one as a synonym of E chlorocorymbos but as Eric Hagsater stated in a personal comment "that is just crazy". This is definitely a good species.

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Icones Orchidacearum 3 Plate 365 Hagsater, Sanchez 1999 as E panegyricum drawing fide; Icones Orchidacearum Vol 8 Plate 827 Hagsater & Sanchez 2006 see recognition section;

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