Epidendrum santaclarense Ames 1923 GROUP Ramosum SUBGROUP Mirabile
Photos by © Gary Yong Gee and his Orchid Photo Webpage
Specimen by © The Epidendra Webpage
TYPE Drawing by © Jimenez, Hágsater & E.Santiago and The AMO Herbario Website
Common Name The Santa Clara Epidendrum [A Town in Costa Rica]
Flower Size 1" [2.5 cm]
Found in Chiapas state of Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Panama at elevations of 900 to 2600 meters as a giant sized, warm to cold growing, hanging epiphtye with a pendent, somewhat branching, cane-like, terete stem producing 1 to 2 new stems from the middle internode, carrying 9 to 12, all along the main and secondary and tertiary stems, all sub-coriaceous, smooth, unequally sized, oblong-ligulate, obtuse to bilobed, entire marginally leaves that blooms in the spring and summer on a terminal, open distichous, 2.4 to 3.2 " [6 to 8 cm] long inflorescence with 2, imbricating, tubular, obtuse bracts and not imbricating, as long as or slightly shorter than the ovary, ovate, rounded floral bacts and carrying 6 to 10, simultaneously opening, resupinate, fragrant flowers.
"Epidendrum santaclarense Ames belongs to the GROUP Ramosum which is characterized by the monopodial, branching stems the spike-like, distichous inflorescence, and the single callus, and the SUBGROUP Mirabile which has pendent plants, successive stems produced from a middle internode of the previous stem, without any evident main stem; the flowers white to purple and mostly very fragrant. The species can be recognized by its large, pendent plants, the open, distichous inflorescences 2.4 to 3.2" [6 to 8 cm] long with 6 to 10 deep green flowers, the floral bracts not imbricating, tubular, deep green with brown dots, the ovary and dorsal surface of the sepals somewhat verrucose, lip cordate, triangular, and the anther dorsally flattened with a pair of short, rounded, petaloid processes at the apex. Epidendrum mirabile Ames & C.Schweinf. has 1 to 3 very large and showy, purple-pink flowers with the sepals 1 to 1.44" [2 to 36 mm} long with the disc and column white, the ovary inflated towards the base and the lip ovate-elliptic. Epidendrum rafael-lucasii Hágsater has wider leaves .64 to 1.44" [1.6 to 3.6 cm] wide), 2 to 4 greenish yellow flowers, the sepals dotted with brown outside and turning deep brown during flowering, sepals long .64 to .8" [16 to 20 mm] lon), the lip triangular cordiform. Epidendrum haberi Hágsater has 2, white flowers, elliptic sepals and petals, sub-quadrate lip, callus a platform prolonged into a central, prominent keel. Epidendrum cocoënse Hágsater and Epidendrum jimenezii Hágsater have robust plants, but the former has and inflorescence with 3, lemon-yellow flowers, imbricating, conduplicate floral bracts, a cordiform lip, the latter has 1 to 3 white to greenish white flowers, a short ovary .4 to .64" [10 to 14 mm] long) and smaller floral segments .38 to .4" [9.5 to 10 mm] long." Hagsater etal 2010
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Las Orquideas de El Salvador Vol 1 Hamer 1974 drawing/photo fide; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 735 Hamer 1982 drawing ok; Selbyana Vol 10 Orchids of Central America Hamer 1988 drawing fide; Icones Planetarum Tropoicarum Plate 1327 Atwood 1989 drawing ok; Field Guide to the Orchids of Costa Rica and Panama Dressler 1993; Icones Orchidacearum 2 Plate 160 Hagsater & Dodson 1993 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 3 Plate 325 Hagsater & Sanchez 1999 see recognition section; Manual de las Plantas de Costa Rica Vol 3 Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003; Orchids of Mexico Hagsater, Soto, Salazar, Jimenez, Lopez and Dressler 2005; Icones Orchidacearum 13 Plate 1382 Hagsater & Sanchez 2010 drawing ok; Orquideas, Tesoro de Colombia Vol 2 Ortiz & Uribe 2017; Orchid Genera and Species in Guatemala Archila, Szlachchetko, Chiron, Lipinska, Mystkowska and Bertolini 2018
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