Epidendrum rigidum Jacq. 1760 GROUP Spathiger SUBGROUP Rigidum

Photo by Prem Subrahmanyam and The Florida Native Orchids Calender Website

plant in situ in the Fahkahatchee Strand in southern Florida

Another Plant in situ in Faxcahatchee Strand in southern Florida

Photos by © Jay Pfahl

Drawing

Drawing by © Jimenez, Hágsater & E.Santiago and The AMO Herbario Website

to and

Common Name The Rigid Epidendrum

Flower Size to 1/2" [to 1.3 cm]

Found in Florida, Bahamas, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leewards, Puerto Rico, Trinidad & Tobago, Windwards, Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, French Guiana, Surinam, Guyana, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil and Argentina in tropical wet and montane forests as a medium sized, cool to hot growing epiphyte in tropical rainforests and tropical semi-deciduous forests, as well as mangrove and other lowland communities at elevations of sealevel to 1350 meters with reed-like stems enveloped basally by several, imbricate, acuminate, scarious sheaths and carrying 3 to 6, clustered at the apical half, narrowly elliptic, subcoriaceous, unequally bilobed apically and basally clasping leaves that has a terminal, short to 6" [15 cm], erect or arching, fractiflex raceme arising on mature canes that has a laterally compressed rachis with prominent conduplicate, spaced, floral bracts that are longer than the ovaries, with 2 ranked, minute successive opening flowers that appear in the spring and fall.

For years E cardiophorum has been given as a synonym of E rigidum but differs mostly in the calli and keels on the lip and the fact that it occurs in Central America. E rigidum is confined to the Antilles and northern South America. All references from Central America for E rigidum are most likely attributed to E cardiophorum.

"Epidendrum rigidum is a part of GROUP Spathiger characterized by sympodial plants and distichous inflorescence, and the SUBGROUP Rigidum which is characterized by the non-secund, mostly small flowers with the lip <.48" [12 mm] long.The creeping rhizome, the short stem producing new growths from the 4th to 5th internode, with 3 to 6 coriaceous leaves, and especially the erect, ancipitose inflorescence with small, distichous, green flowers with segments no more than .28" [7 mm] long, easily identify this species." Hagsater etal 1990

Synonyms Epidendrum pium Rchb. f. 1881; Spathiger rigidus (Jacq.) Small 1913

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Bonplandia Rchb.f 1854; Bonplandia Rchb.f 1856; Otia Botanica Hamburgensia Rchb.f 1881 as E pium; Symbolae Antillanae Vol VI Orchidaceae Urban 1909; Flora of Jamaica Fawcett & Rendle 1910; Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 6: 72 Schlechter 1919; Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 10: 71 Bolivia Schlechter 1922; Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 19: 127. Costa Rica Schlechter 1923 not = E cardiophorum; Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 27: 72 Colombia Schlechter 1924; Beitrage Zur Orchideenkunde Von Colombia 27:136 Schlechter 1924; Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 35: 72 Schlechter 1925 as E pium; Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 35: 72 Schlechter 1925; The Genus Epidendrum Ames 1936; Catalogo Descriptivo de las Orquideas Cubanas Acuna 1938 as Spathiger rigidum; Flore Descriptive des Antilles Francaises H. Stehle 1939 drawing ok; The Orchids of Panama L.O. Williams & P Allen 1946 drawing not = E cardiophorum; Ceiba Vol 5 No 1 L O Williams 1956; AOS Bulletin Vol 26 No 10 1957 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 27 No 6 1958; Orchids of Peru Vol 2 Fieldiana Schweinfurth 1959 drawing fide; Native Orchids of Trinidad Schultes 1960; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965; Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated Vol 4 Dunsterville & Garay 1966 drawing fide; Flora de Venezuela Foldats Volumen XV Part 3 1970 drawing fide; The Native Orchids of Florida Luer 1972 Photos/drawing fide; Orchid Digest Vol 36 No 5 1972 as E pium drawing ok; Flora of the Lesser Antilles Garay & Sweet 1974 drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 44 #8 1975; Orchidaceae Brasilense Band 1 Pabst & Dungs 1975 drawing good; Orchidaceae Brasilense Band 1 Pabst & Dungs 1975 as E pium drawing good; Die Orchideen 3 Auflage Bd 1 Sonderabdruck aus Schlechter Lieferung 9 513 - 576 Brieger, Maatsch and Senghas 1977 photo fide; Orchids of Venezuela, An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 1 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 drawing fide; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 095 Dodson 1980 drawing fide; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 734 Dodson 1982 drawing good; Selbyana Vol 10 Orchids of Central America Hamer 1988 drawing not = E cardiophorum; AOS Bulletin Vol 54 No 3 1985 photo fide; The Orchids of Surinam Werkhoven 1986 photo fide; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Series II Orchids of Bolivia plate 0334 Dodson & Vasquez 1989 drawing fide; Icones Orchidacearum I Hagsater & Salazar 1990 plate 41 drawing fide; Inventaire Taxominique des Plantes de la Guyane Francaise Vol II Les Orchidaceaes Cremers and Hoff 1992; The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Orchids Pridgeon 1992 photo fide; The Orchids of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands Ackerman 1992 drawing fide; Field Guide to the Orchids of Costa Rica and Panama Dressler 1993; Icones Orchidacearum 2 Plate 174 Hagsater & Dodson 1993 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 3 Plate 308 Hagsater 1999 see recognition section; An Orchid Flora Of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands Ackerman 1995; Manual Of Orchids Stewart 1995; Icones Orchidacearum 3 Plate 308 Hagsater 1999 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 3 Plate 357 Hagsater 1999 see recognition section; Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 1 Ramiro and Carnevali 2000 drawing fide; Orchidaceae Antillanae Nir 2000; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 2 Dodson 2001 drawing fide; Moscosoa 13:115 2002 ; Botanica's Orchids Laurel Glen 2002 photo fide; Orquideas Nativas del Tachira Cesar Fernandez 2003 photo fide; Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana Vol 7 Steyermark, Berry, Yatskievych and Holst 2003; Orchids of Bolivia Vol 2 Laelinae Vasquez and Ibisch 2004 drawing/photo fide; Orchids of The Brazilian Central Plateau Menezes 2004 photo fide; The Orchids of Cuba Llamacho & Larramendi 2005 photo fide; Orquideas de la Serrania del Baudo Misas Urreta 2005 drawing/photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 77 no 1 2008 photo fide; The Organ Mountain Range Its History and its Orchids Miller, Warren, Miller & Seehawer 2008 as E piumdrawing/photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 78 #6 2009 photo fide; Orchid Species of Peru Zelenko Bermudez 2009 not photo ok; Orchids of Costa Rica Vol 3 Morales 2009 photo not = E cardiophorum; Mille et Une Mini Orchideees Roguenant 2009 photo fide; Icones Orchidacearum 13 Plate 1311 Hagsater & Sanchez 2010 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 13 Plate 1361 Hagsater & Sanchez 2010 see reconition section; Las Orquideas del Peru Izerskyy & Bezverhov 2011 photo not = E cf difforme; An Illustrated Field Guide to the Orchids of the Yotoco Forest Reserve Colombia Kolanowska, Escobar, Sanchez & Szlachetko 2011 drawing/photo fide; Orquideas de Roirama Luz & Franco 2012 photo fide; Orchids of French Guiana Szlachetko, Veyret, etal 2012 drawing/photo fide; Orchidees Du Bresil As Orchideas da Serra Do Castello Vol 3 Chiron & Bolsanello 2013 drawing/photo fide; Orchids of the Department of Valle De Cauca Colombia Vol 2 Kolanowska, Hagsater etal. 2014 photo drawing/photo fide; Orchid Flora of the Greater Antilles Ackerman 2014; Orchids of the Darien Gap Kolanowska 2014; Orquideas, Tesoro de Colombia Vol 2 Ortiz & Uribe 2017 drawing/photo fide; Icones Orchidacearum 17(1) Plate 1707 Hagsater & Jimenez 2019 see recognition section

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