Epidendrum physodes Rchb.f. 1873 GROUP Physinga
Photos by © Karremans, Used under permission of the Epidendra Website CR
Photo by © Eric Hagsater/Drawing by Jimenez and The AMO Herbaria Website
Photo by © Daniel Jimenez and his Flickr Orchid Photo Webpage
JUST 
Common Name The Bellow-Like Epidendrum
Flower Size .6" [1.5cm]
Found in Guatemala, Costa Rica and Panama at elevations of 1400 to 2100 meters as a small sized, cool to just cold growing epiphyte with simple, cane-like, basally terete, laterally compressed above, erect to prostrate, straight stems carrying 9 to 11, evenly distributed along the stem, alternate, articulate, lanceolate, long-acuminate, minutely apiculate, fleshy-succulent, gray-green above, purple tinged below, margin entire leaves that blooms in the fall on a terminal, racemose, producing more than one over time, flowering over several years, laterally compressed, with 5 to 8, tubular, acuminate bracts, straight to slightly sinuous, terete, laxly 3 to 12 per raceme, to 50 flowered overall inflorescence with shorter than the ovary, widely infundibular floral bracts and carrying nocturnally fragrant flowers scented of calcium hydrochloride.
" Epidendrum physodes belongs to the GROUP Physinga which is characterized by the generally small, caespitose plants, the inflorescence apical and racemose producing new racemes with time and thus pluriracemose, the successive flowers opening one at a time on an elongate peduncle with acuminate bracts, the lip entire and the ovary with a prominent vesicle. The species is recognized by the lanceolate, short-acuminate, gray-green, fleshy leaves, the lip transversely elliptic, somewhat concave, the calli prominent, rounded, the clinandrium-hood short, f1eshy, not surpassing the body of the column. Epidendrum polygonatum Lindl. from the Antilles is very similar but has smaller f1owers, sepals .14 to .2" [3.5 to 5 mm long] and the widely obovate lip has evident, high, f1eshy keels. Epidendrum macroclinium Hágsater has shorter.6 to 1.8" [1.5 to 4.5 cm long], ovate-lanceolate, obtuse to acute, gray-green, sometimes with the foliar veins thickened and very evident on the basal half of the upper side of the leaves, the obreniform lip, the short calli, placed far from the apex of the column, and a very prominent, fimbriate-dentate clinandrium-hood. Epidendrum prostratum (Lindl.) Cogn. is vegetatively very similar to the latter, but the sepals and petals are partly spreading, the base of the lip deeply cordate, with 3 prominent keels on the disc, and the clinandrium-hood deeply emarginate, the margin entire." Hagsater etal 2008
Synonyms Physinga physodes (Rchb. f.) Brieger 1977; Physinga physodes (Rchb.f.) Brieger & Bicalho 1978
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; The Genus Epidendrum Ames 1936; The Orchids of Panama L.O. Williams & P Allen 1946; Ceiba Vol 5 No 1 L O Williams 1956; Rudolf Schlechter Die Orchideen 3 Auflage Bd 1 Sonderabdruck aus Schlechter Lieferung 9 513 - 576 Brieger, Maatsch and Senghas 1977 as Physinga physodes; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 1074 Dodson 1984 as Physinga physodes drawing fide; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 1526 Dodson 1984 See Notes; ORQUIDEA (Méx.) 9(2): 1984 photo fide; ORQUIDEA (Méx.) 10 (2) 1987 drawing/photo fide; Icones Orchidacearum 4 Plate 464 Hagsater & Sanchez 2001 see recognition section; Rudolf Schlechter Die Orchideen Band 1C lieferung 42 - 43 pg 2626 - 2762 Brieger 2001 2001 as Physinga physodes; Manual de las Plantas de Costa Rica Vol 3 Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003; Vanishing Beauty; Native Costa Rican Orchids Vol 1 Pupulin 2005 photo fide; Icones Orchidacearum Vol 11 Plate 1159 Hagsater & Sanchez 2008 drawing fide; Icones Orchidacearum Vol 11 Plate 1184 Hagsater & Sanchez 2008 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 13 Plate 1325 Hagsater 2010 see recognition section; I cones Orchidacearum 13 Plate 1353 Hagsater 2010 see recognition section; Orquideas, Tesoro de Colombia Vol 2 Ortiz & Uribe 2017; Icones Orchidacearum 17(1) Plate 1738 Hagsater & Jimenez 2019 see recognition setion; Icones Orchidacearum 18(1) plate 1833 Hagsater, 2020 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 18(2) Plate 1873 Hagsater & Jimenez 2021 see recognition section
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