Epidendrum pseudepidendrum Rchb. f. 1856 GROUP Pseudepidendrum SUBGROUP Turialvae
Photo by © Oak Hill Gardens and Their Website
Photo by © Jay Pfahl
Drawing by © Jimenez, Hágsater & E.Santiago and The AMO Herbario Website
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Common Name The False Epidendrum
Flower Size 2 1/2 to 3" [6.25 to 7.5 cm]
Found in Costa Rica and Panama in lowland and foothill rain forests at altitudes of 400 to 2000 meters as a large sized, warm to cold growing epiphytic herb with cylindric thin, tall stems enveloped by tubular, scarious sheaths and carrying a few, elliptic, coriaceous, acute, basally clasping leaves all held towards the apex that blooms in late winter and early spring on a terminal, loose, semi-erect to arching, to 6" [15 cm] long, simultaneously 3 to 5 flowered raceme arising on a newly mature pseudobulb with several, basal, imbricate bracts and weakly scented flowers.
The large plants with elliptic leaves that are all along the upper third of the stem, the subapical, few flowered inflorescence carrying large flowers with dark green tepals, a yellow lip and a long and thin column with the apex yellow to violet distinguish this species.
"Epidendrum pseudepidendrum belongs to the GROUP Pseudepidendrum which is characterized by caespitose plants, cane-like stems, acute to acuminate leaves, usually apical inflorescence, the filiforrn petals and the lip usually 3-lobed with 3 parallel fleshy keels, the apical lobe often bifurcate, the "bird-wing" type pollinia, and SUBGROUP Turialvae which has a racemose and few-flowered inflorescence on an elongate peduncle, producing new racemes over the years and thus pluriracemose. The species is recognized by the generally tall plants, with elliptic leaves 2 to 8" x .8 to 2.4" [5 to 20 x 2 to 6 cm], lax and few-flowered, apical inflorescence, the large flowers with dark green sepals and petals, and a solid, lustrous, orange lip wilh the column basally green, and apex red to violaceous. Epidendrum xanthoianthinum Hágsater = E. pseudepidendrum var auratum Rchb.f. from Colombia, has lhe lip clearly 3-lobed, the midlobe divided into two subquadrate, divaricate lobes, the green flowers with a lemon-yellow lip with the disc and apex of the column purple to yellowish purple." Hagsater etal 2008
Synonyms Pseudepidendrum spectabile Rchb.f 1852
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Xenia Orchidaceae Rchb.f 1854 drawing fide; Die Orchideen Schlechter 1915; Atlas des Orchidees Cultivees Constantin 1920 drawing fide; The Genus Epidendrum Ames 1936; The Orchids of Panama L.O. Williams & P Allen 1946; Ceiba Vol 5 No 1 L O Williams 1956; AOS Bulletin Vol 31 No 3 1962; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965; Die Orchideen 3 Auflage Bd 1 Sonderabdruck aus Schlechter Lieferung 9 513 - 576 Brieger, Maatsch and Senghas 1977 as Pseudepidendrum spectabile drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 50 No 6 1981 photo fide; ORQUIDEA (Méx.) 9(2): 1984 photo fide; Orchids Travel By Air A Pictoral Safari Mulder, Mulder-Roelfsema and Schuiteman 1990 photo fide; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 1432 Atwood 1992 drawing fide; The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Orchids Pridgeon 1992 photo fide; The Manual Of Cultivated Orchid Species Bechtel, Cribb & Launert 1992 photo fide; Field Guide to the Orchids of Costa Rica and Panama Dressler 1993; Icones Orchidacearum 2 plate 197 Hagsater & Salazar 1993 see recognition section; Manual Of Orchids Stewart 1995 drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 66 No 11 1997 photo fide; Orchids Australia Vol 10 No 5 1998 photo; AOS Bulletin Vol 67 No 9 1998 photo fide; Orchid Australia Vol 12 No 3 2000 photo; Botanica's Orchids Laurel Glen 2002 photo fide; Manual de las Plantas de Costa Rica Vol 3 Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003 drawing fide; Flora's Orchids Nash & La Croix 2005 photo fide; Vanishing Beauty, Native Costa Rican Orchids Vol 1 Pupulin 2005 photo fide; Genera Orchidacearum Vol 4 Epidendoideae Part one Pridgeon, Cribb, Chase and Rasmussen 2005 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 77 No 8 2008 drawing fide; Icones Orchidacearum Vol 11 Plate 1102 Hagsater & Sanchez 2008 see Recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum Vol 11 Plate 1165 Hagsater & Sanchez 2008 drawing fide; Orchids of Costa Rica Vol 3 Morales 2009 photo fide; Orchid Digest Vol 74 #2 2010 photo fide; Icones Orchidacearum 14 Plate 1434 Hagsater & Santiago 2013 See recognition section; AOS Bulletin Vol 86 # 3 2017 photo fide;
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