Epidendrum pseudapaganum D.E.Benn. & Christenson 1998 GROUP Difforme

Photo by © John Varigos and his Flickr Orchid Photo Website

Common Name The False E apaganum Epidendrum [refers to its similarity to E apaganum]

Flower Size 1.2" [3 cm]

Found in Peru in cool, wet, cloud forests at elevations around 2650 meters as a small sized, cold growing epiphyte with erect, straight stems enveloped by persistent, complanate sheaths and carrying all along the stem, coriaceous, elliptic-obtuse leaves that blooms in the spring on a terminal, congested, simultaneously several to numerous flowered inflorescence with the flowers held in an apical umbel and arising through a infundibuliform spathe-like bract.

"Epidendrum pseudapaganum D.E.Benn. & Christenson, from Peru, belongs to the GROUP Difforme which is characterized by the caespitose, sympodial plants, fleshy, pale green to glaucous leaves, apical inflorescence, sessile, rarely with a short peduncle, one to many-flowered and then corymbose, without spathaceous bracts, fleshy, green to yellowish-green rarely white flowers. The species has longer leaves up to 4.8" [12 cm] long than the comparitive species, numerous, pale-green flowers, acute petals, a convex, reniform lip, apparently without any prominent central keel. Epidendrum apaganum has its laterally compressed stems, sheaths wide, infundibuliform, ancipitose, elliptic leaves to 3.2" [8.0 cm] long, 1 to 3 flowers, petals .56 to .6" [14 to 15 mm] long, linear-oblanceolate, 3-lobed lip, the disc with numerous prominent, thickened, radiating veins; the lateral lobes ovate, entire, oblique, at a 45° angle, mid-lobe smaller than the lateral lobes, triangular, emarginate, forming a right angle. It is very similar to Epidendrum apaganoides D.E.Benn. & Christenson, from Peru, but that species has larger flowers, sepals and petals .88 to 1.12 [2.2 to 2.8 cm] long, spatulate petals, the veins of the disc are not thickened, with a prominent central keel, 2 prominent, divergent, calli, the lateral lobes of the lip sub-orbicular, and the truncate mid-lobe surpassing the lateral lobes. Epidendrum microcephalum Hágsater & L.Sánchez, from Venezuela, has larger plants, 9.8 to 14" [24 to 35 cm] tall, smaller flowers, petals .36 to .44" [9 to 11 mm] long, and the lip with semi-orbicular lateral lobes and a very small mid-lobe, formed by a pair of semi-circular lobes." adapted from E apaganum plate 1603 Hagsater etal 2018

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; *Icones Orchidacearum Peruviarum Plate 468 Bennett & Christenson 1998 drawing good; Icones Orchidacearum Vol 8 Plate 827 Hagsater & Sanchez 2006 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum Vol 8 Plate 896 Hagsater & Sanchez 2006 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 12 Plate 1254 Hagsater 2009 see recognition section; LANKESTERIANA 14(1) 2014; Icones Orchidacearum 15 [2] Plate 1584 Hagsater & Sanchez 2016 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 16[1] Plate 1603 Hagsater 2018 see recognition section

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