Epidendrum repens Cogn. 1909 GROUP Ramosum SUBGROUP Repens
Photo by © Eric Hunt
Drawing by © Jimenez, Hágsater & E.Santiago and The AMO Herbario Website
LATE LATE
Common Name The Crawling Epidendrum
Flower Size 3/4" [2 cm]
Found from Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leewards, southern Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Niacaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia in cloud forests at elevations around 1500 to 2000 meters as a small to large sized, cool growing epiphyte and sometimes lithophyte with a much branching, pendent, terete, flexuous, main stem very long, secondary stems long as well, tertiary stems short all enveloped basally by several, tubular, scarious sheaths and carrying many, larger, on the main and secondary stems, smaller ands fewer on the tertiary stems, rigid, coriaceous, linear-oblong, obtuse, unequally bilobed, basally clasping leaves that blooms in spring through fall on a terminal, at the apex of the secondary and tertiary branches, short, single flowered inflorescence with 2 to 3, as long as and enveloping the ovary, widely triangular, obtuse, mucronate, with an an apical apicule floral bracts and carrying a resupinate, green flower that is held close to the leaf apex.
"Epidendrum repens Cogn. belongs to the GROUP Ramosum which is characterized by the monopodial, branching stems, the spike-like, distichous inflorescence, and the single callus, and the and the SUBGROUP Repens, which has strictly pendent plants, with small leaves less than 1" [2.5 cm] long. The species has an evident main stem, with short branches, the leaves of the main and secondary stems are larger than those of the tertiary or flowering stems, ovate-oblanceolate, single f1ower, uninflated ovary, lip .08" [2 mm] wide, ecallose. Very similar to Epidendrum brachyrepens Hágsater, but the vegetative habit of that species is without an evident main stem, it is formed by a succession of similar, short stems, the leaves are all small, similar. Epidendrum strobiliferum Rchb. f. has smaller plants, 3 to 4 flowers, inflated ovary and smaller floral segments, .12 to .16" [3 to 4 mm] long. Epidendrum luckei Bock has yellowish green f1owers, the ovary with an inflated vesicle behind the perianth, the column has a pair of lateral, acute teeth, and the anther ends in a pair of horn-like processes." Hagsater etal 2008
Synonyms Epidendrum bourgeaui Schltr. 1918; Epidendrum protractum Schltr. 1920; Epidendrum ramistratum Schltr. 1921; Epidendrum solisequum Kraenzl. 1921; Spathiger repens (Cogn.) Acuña 1939
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; *Symbolae Antillanae Vol VI Orchidaceae Urban 1909; Flora of Jamaica Fawcett & Rendle 1910 drawing ok; Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 7: 145 Schlechter 1920 as E protractum; Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 7: 250 Schlechter 1920 as E protractum; Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 8: 82 Ecuador Schlechter 1921 as E ramistratum; Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. Figuren-Atlas 57: 196 Schlechter 1929 as E protractum drawing fide; Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. Figuren-Atlas 57: 359 Schlechter 1929 as E ramistratum drawing fide; The Genus Epidendrum Ames 1936; Catalogo Descriptivo de las Orquideas Cubanas Acuna 1938 as Spathiger repens; The Orchids of Panama L.O. Williams & P Allen 1946; Ceiba Vol 5 No 1 L O Williams 1956; AOS Bulletin Vol 28 No 5 1959; AOS Bulletin Vol 33 #8 1964; Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated Vol 4 Dunsterville & Garay 1966 drawing fide; Flora de Venezuela Foldats Volumen XV Part 3 1970 drawing fide; Las Orquedias De El Salvador Vol 1 Hamer 1974 drawing/photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 48 #5 1979; Die Orchideen 3 Auflage Bd 1 Sonderabdruck aus Schlechter Lieferung 9 513 - 576 Brieger, Maatsch and Senghas 1977; Orquídea (Mexico City), n.s., 7[3]: 1979; Orchids of Venezuela, An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 1 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 drawing fide; Miniature Orchids Northen 1980; Las Orquedias de El Salvador Vol 3 Hamer 1981 drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 49 No 5 1979; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 733 Dodson 1982 drawing fide; Selbyana Vol 10 Orchids of Central America Hamer 1988 drawing fide; Field Guide to the Orchids of Costa Rica and Panama Dressler 1993; Icones Orchidacearum 3 Plate 315 Hagsater 1999 see recognition section; Orchidaceae Antillanae Nir 2000; Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 1 Ramiro and Carnevali 2000 drawing fide; Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana Vol 7 Steyermark, Berry, Yatskievych and Holst 2003; Manual de las Plantas de Costa Rica Vol 3 Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003; Orchids of Bolivia Vol 2 Laelinae Vasquez and Ibisch 2004; The Orchids of Cuba Llamacho & Larramendi 2005 photo fide; Icones Orchidacearum 9 Plate 919 Hagsater 2007 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 9 Plate 923 Hagsater 2007 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 9 Plate 953 Hagsater 2007 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 9 Plate 994 Hagsater 2007 see recognition section; Orquideas de la Republica Dominicana Y Haiti Fernandez 2007 photo fide; Icones Orchidacearum Vol 11 Plate 1169 Hagsater & Sanchez 2008 drawing fide; Orchids of Costa Rica Vol 3 Morales 2009 photo fide; Icones Orchidacearum 13 Plate 1390 Hasater & Salazar 2010 see recognition section; Orchid Flora of the Greater Antilles Ackerman 2014; Icones Orchidacearum 15 [1] Plate 1515 Hagsater & Sanchez 2015 see recognition section; Orquideas, Tesoro de Colombia Vol 2 Ortiz & Uribe 2017 drawing fide; Orchid Genera and Species in Guatemala Archila, Szlachchetko, Chiron, Lipinska, Mystkowska and Bertolini 2018
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