Epidendrum rupestre Lindl. 1841GROUP Rupestre

Drawing by © Schlechter and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website

Common Name The Lithophytic Epidendrum

Flower Size .8" [2 cm]

Found in Ecuador and Peru on rocks as a small sized, cold growing lithophyte with caespitose, cylindric to fusiform, and more or less arcuate when dry, obliquely bifoliate apically stems carrying ascending, coriaceous, lanceolate to elliptic-lanceolate, acute, cuneate below into the base leaves that blooms in the summer on a terminal, erect to suberect becoming arcuate to pendent, loosely racemose above, peduncle, complanate, with 1 to 2, scarious, rachis to 2.4" [6 cm] long, 5.2" [13 cm] long overall, loosely several, to 11 flowered inflorescence with small, triangular-lanceolate, acuminate, much shorter than the ovary floral bract.

Epidendrum rupestre belongs to the GROUP Rupestre which is characterized by the caespitose, sympodial plant, the pseudobulbous stems with 1 to 4 fully developed leaves toward the apex, and lack of spathes at the base of an erect, racemose or paniculate inflorescence, the lip ecallose but with several f1eshy thickened keels on the disc. The species is recognized by the loosely racemose inflorescence, larger flowers with sepals .28" [7 mm] long, and the midlobe of the lip subquadrate-rounded, broader than long. Epidendrum pachydiscum has elliptic leaves .28 to .48" [7 to 12 mm] wide, the erect, many-flowered raceme of small flowers with sepals .212 to .232" [5.3 to 5.8 mm] long, and the deeply 3-lobed lip, ecallose with a fleshy, 3- keeled disc, and the midlobe bilobed, the outer sides curved outwards and entire, the inner sides dentate to short fimbriate, the lobes about as long as they are wide." Adapted from E pachydiscum plate 773 Hagsater etal 2004

Here is a list of the Peruvian Epidendrum with true pseudobulbs, E blepharistes, E compressibulbum, E harmsianum, E microcattleya, E oellgaardii, E parvilabre, E polystachyum, Epidendrum pseudopolystachum, E saxicola and E viviparum.

Synonyms Epidendrum calyptrochilum Schltr. 1921; Epidendrum penlandii L.O.Williams 1940; Epidendrum piestopus Schltr. 1917

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 8: 69 Schlechter 1921 as E calyptrochilum; Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. Figuren -Atlas 57: 337 Schlechter 1929 as E calyptrochilum drawing fide; Orchids of Peru Vol 2 Fieldiana Schweinfurth 1959; Icones Orchidacearum 7 Plate 773 Hagsatter & Sanchez 2004 see recongnition section; Icones Orchidacearum 9 Plate 956 Hagsater 2007 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 15 [2] Plate 1570 Hagsater & Sanchez 2016 as e penlandii see recognition section; Orquideas, Tesoro de Colombia Vol 2 Ortiz & Uribe 2017 photo good; Icones Orchidacearum 18(2) Plate 1862 Hagsater & Jimenez 2021 see recognition section;

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