Epidendrum podocarpense Hágsater & E.Santiago 2018 GROUP Frutex
LCDP Photo by © E. Hágsater & A. Cisneros /TYPE Photo G Salazar and Icones Orchidacearum 16(2) Plate 1696 Hagsater & Jimenez 2018 and the AMO Herbaria Website
Common Name The Podocarpus Epidendrum [reference to the National Park where the species occurs]
Flower Size .4" [1 cm]
Found in Loja and Zamora-Chinchipe provinces in southern Ecuador on the Cordillera Occidental in the Parque Nacional Yacurí, from the Peruvian border to the Nudo de Sabanilla where it connects with the Cordillera Oriental and the Parque Nacional Podocarpus, at elevations of 3300 to 3400 meteres, in wet, foggy, windy conditions throughout the year as a small to medium sized, cold growing terrestrial with cane-like, terete, thin, erect, straight, scarcely branching when mature stems, base covered with tubular, non-foliar, rugose, scarious sheaths and carrying 11 to 17, distributed throughout the stem, alternate, articulate, sub-erect, sub-coriaceous; foliar sheaths tubular, verrucose, green tinged purple-brown; blade narrowly lanceolate, acute, minutely apiculate, slightly revolute (without being in-rolled), giving the leaf a convex aspect, margin finely crenulate leaves that blooms in the spring on a terminal, qithout a spathe, peduncle .88 x .08" [22 x 2 mm], short, laterally compressed but not ancipitose, thin without being filiform, minutely papillose, provided in the middle with a bract .6 x .16" [15 x 4 mm ](without spreading), amplexicaul at the base, acute, rugose-papillose, 2.4" [6 cm] long overall, racemose to simply paniculate, producing short, few-flowered racemes, apical in young stems, lateral in mature stems, arching-nutant, producing a helicoid around the rachis, successively 6 to 28 flowered inflorescence with as long or slightly longer than the ovary, progressively shorter towards the apex of the inflorescence, triangular, acuminate, embracing, dorsally slightly papillose, reddish floral bracts and carrying fuchsia colored, nonfragrant flowers with the lip and ventral surface of the tepals pink, column ivory white.
"Epidendrum podocarpense belongs to the GROUP Frutex recognized by the caepitose habit, usually simple stems, lanceolate leaves, lacking spathes, nutant racemes, widely cordiform to reniform lip and GROUP Frutex SUBGROUP Leptanthum which is caracterized by the thin stems, scarecely branched when mature, leaves short, linear-lanceolate to lanceolate oblong, nearly parallel to the stem, inflorescence arching-nutant, apical and lateral in mature stems, racemose to paniculate, few-flowered. The new species is recognized by the erect stems, leaves 1.32 to 2.2" x .24 to .32" [3.3 to 5.5 x 0.6 to 0.8 cm], linear-lanceolate, flowers fucsia-pink, sepals apically acute, minutely apiculate, petals .28 x .48" [7 x 1.2 mm], oblong, apex obtuse, and lip .24 x .36" [6.0 x 9.0 mm], widely cordiform with a pair of triangular, narrow calli. Vegetatively it is very similar to Epidendrum choccei M.E.Acuña, Hágsater & E.Santiago , but that species has prostrate stems, leaves 1.08 to 1.36" x .12" [2.7 to 3.4 x 0.3 cm], narrowly lanceolate, flowers similar in color, but sepals acuminate, petals .24 to .28 " x .28" [6 to 7 x 0.7 mm], linear-oblong, falcate, and the lip .22 x .24" [5.5 x 6.0 mm], widely ovate with the apex acuminate, ecallose. Epidendrum leptanthum Hágsater also has erect stems and similar leaves, but the flowers are cretaceous, greenish white, outside more or less tinged green with red-brown minute dots, lip widely cordiform, callus cuneate, apically bilobed forming a “W”, with a low, narrow central mid-rib reaching the apex. Epidendrum effusipetalum Hágsater, Edquén & E.Santiago has yellowish green flowers, the sepals tinged brown, dorsal sepal obtuse, petals .4 x .04" [10 x 1 mm], outstretched, and the lip .26 x .28" [6.5 x 7 mm], ovate-cordiform, ecallose." Hagsater etal 2018
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Icones Orchidacearum 16(2) Plate 1696 Hagsater & Jimenez 2018 drawing/photo fide; Icones Orchidacearum 17(1) Plate 1712 Hagsater & Jimenez 2019 see recognition section
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