Epidendrum purum Lindl. 1844 GROUP Amblostomoides

Photo by © Lourens Grobler

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Common Name The Single-Colored Epidendrum

Flower Size 3/4" [to 2 cm]

Found in Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and occuring at elevations of 500 to 2800 meters Bolivia as a medium sized, cold to warm growing, reedstem, epiphytic species with terete, slightly swollen in the middle stems enveloped completely by tubular, scarious below to leaf bearing above sheaths carrying, narrowly linear, thin, erect, light green, acute leaves that blooms in the fall and winter on a terminal, erect, few to several flowered, racemose inflorescence carrying fragrant flowers.

The stems are somewhat thickened toward the middle, without forming pseudobulbs. Cold to warm conditions and water throughtout the year but reduce the watering after growth has mature.

"Epidendrum purum Lindl. has glabrous ovaries and sepals, sepals.24 to .28" [6 to 7 mm] long and an arched column and belongs to the GROUP Amblostomoides which is characterized by the caespitose habit, the thinly fusiform stems with narrow, apically bilobed, subcoriaceous leaves distributed along the apical half of the stems, an often large, apical, erect, paniculate inflorescence, the flowers greenish-yellow to white, the ovary and the sepals usually dorsally pubescent, and the lip 3-lobed. Epidendrum elephantinum has strongly pubescent ovaries and sepals (dorsally), the strongly arched column, with the humped clinandrium hood, the small flowers with sepals .2 to .264" [5 to 6.6 mm] and the bell-shaped midlobe with the lateral margins revolute and the whole upturned so as to look like an elephant's trunk. It closely resembles Epidendrum pubiflorum from the Amazonian slope in Peru, which has oblong, apically rounded, bilobed leaves, larger flowers with sepals.36 to .44" [9 to 11 mm], and the petals .08" [2 mm] wide. Epidendrum caurense Carnevali & G. Romero has sepals ,28" [7 mm] long, pale yellow-green flowers, a straight column, and an oblong midlobe. Epidendrum lanipes Lindl. has .4 to .48" [10 to 12 mm] long sepals, white, strongly fragrant flowers, a straight column, and large, sturdy stems with leaves .68 to 1" [17 to 25 mm] wide. Epidendrum hartii Rolfe has glabrous ovaries and sepals which are .28 to .32" [7 to 8 mm] long, and a stralght column." Adapted from E elephantinum Icones plate 734 Hagsater etal 2004

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Bonplandia Rchb.f 1854; Otia Botanica Hamburgensia Rchb.f 1878; Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 6: 71 Schlechter 1919; Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 7: 251 Schlechter 1920; Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 10: 71 Bolivia Schlechter 1922; AOS Bulletin Vol 28 No 5 1959 photo fide; Orchids of Peru Vol 2 Fieldiana Schweinfurth 1959; Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated Vol 1 Dunsterville & Garay 1959 drawing good; AOS Bulletin Vol 30 No 5 1961; AOS Bulletin Vol 36 #9 1967; AOS Bulletin Vol 38 No 6 1969; Flora de Venezuela Foldats Volumen XV Part 3 1970 drawing good; AOS Bulletin Vol 44 #4 1975 photo fide; Orchids of Venezuela, An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 1 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 drawing good; The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Orchids Pridgeon 1992 photo fide; The Manual Of Cultivated Orchid Species Bechtel, Cribb & Launert 1992 photo fide; Icones Orchidacearum 2 Plate 132 Hagsater 1993 see recognition section; Manual Of Orchids Stewart 1995; Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 1 Ramiro and Carnevali 2000 drawing good; Orchids of Bolivia Vol 2 Laelinae Vasquez and Ibisch 2004; Icones Orchidacearum 4 Plate 444 Hagsater 2001 see recognition section; Orchids of Bolibvia Vol II Laelinae Vasquez & Ibisch 2004 photo fide; Icones Orchidacearum 7 Plate 734 Hagsater 2004 see recognition section; Orquideas del Peru Freuler 2010 photo ok; Orquideas, Tesoro de Colombia Vol 2 Ortiz & Uribe 2017 as E cf purum drawing/photo good; Icones Orchidacearum 16[1} Plate 1657 Hagsater & Sanchez 2018 see recognitiom section;

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