TYPE Photo by © L. Valenzuela/TYPE Drawing by R. Jiménez M. and The AMO Herbario Website
LATE 
Common Name Sho'Llet's Epidendrum [In honor of Sho'Llet, a beautiful Yánesha princess who, according to legend, lived in Oso'pen, the cloud forest, and who however was without sentiments and could not cry. Once while walking in the sacred mountain she was bitten by a poisonous snake. A young Yánesha warrior by the name Tze Zil rescued her while hunting, extracted the poison and cared for her until she recovered. He proposed marriage but she did not accept. The warrior died in a battle and in his last sigh he called her name. Sho'Llet wept for the first time and filled the seven lakes in the forest. The type specimen was collected in that forest, near Oxapampa. (Anonymous, 2017)]
Flower Size .8" [2 cm]
Found in Pasco Department of central Peru on Andean Tepui, on small bushes in sclerophyllous forest on white sandstone, at elevatiosns of 2184 to 2650 meters as a small sized, cold growing epiphyte with simple, cane-like, terete, erect, covered by foliar sheaths. Leaves 8-16, distributed throughout the stem; sheaths 0.8-1.1 x 0.3-0.4 cm, tubular, smooth, papyraceous, scarious when dry, reddish green to violet; blade 1.4- 2.7 x 0.4-0.8 cm, oblong-elliptic, obtuse, fleshy, coriaceous, green somewhat tinged red, margin entire leaves that blooms in the late spring and summer on a terminal, erect, withhout a spathe, peduncle, ca. 3.2" [8 cm] long, reddish green, elongate, terete, slightly flexuous, covered by tubular, yellow, scarious when dry, striated, papyraceous, imbricated, acuminate bracts, rachis short, thin, 5.6" [14 cm] long overall, apical from mature stem, simple or pluri-racemose, producing new racemes from the upper nodes of the peduncle, racemose, successively single flowered inflorescence with much shorter than the ovary, triangular, acuminate, embracing floral bracts and carrying red flowers with the callus orange and the fragrance was not registered.
"Epidendrum sholletiae belongs to the GROUP Secundum SUBGROUP Amphiglottium which is characterized by the caespitose habit, erect, simple, cane-like stems, a normally elongate peduncle of the inflorescence, an erect raceme of generally nonresupinate, showy, colorful flowers, and a lip adorned by a complex a callus. The new species has small plants, 8.04 to 10" [21 to 25 cm] tall plants including the inflorescence, red flowers with an orange callus, oblong-elliptic leaves, .52 to 1.08" x .16 to .32" [1.4 to 2.7 x 0.4 to 0.8 cm], sepals .352 to .4" [8.8 to 10.0 mm] long, petals .408 x .328" [10.2 x 3.2 mm], narrowly elliptic, and the lip with sub-quadrate to sub-flabellate lateral lobes, the margin irregularly laciniate, the lacinia short at base and progressively longer, mid-lobe very short, obtrapezoid, and a large callus. Epidendrum azulensis D.E.Benn. & Christenson also has small plants, narrow linear-lanceolate leaves 1.6 to 2.4" x .16 to .6" [4.0 to 6.0 x 0.4 to 1.5 cm], flowers dark pink to deep violet, callus white, slightly tinged with pale yellow at the base; petals .248 x .08" [6.2 x 2.0 mm], lanceolate, acute, and the lateral lobes of the lip sub-ovate with margin laciniate. Epidendrum rauhii Hágsater has white with a yellow callus flowers, yellowing when pollinated or aging and petals obovate. All three species can be considered as dwarf species of the Amphiglottium subgroup with stems no more than 20 cm tall in optimum conditions." Hagsater etal 2020
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Icones Orchidacearum 17(2) Plate 1787 Hagsater & Jimenez 2020 TYPE Drawing/Photo fide; Icones Orchidacearum 18(2) Plate 1884 Hagsater & Jimenez 2021
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