Epidendrum thelephorum Hágsater & Dodson 1993 GROUP Nanum

Photo by © Ramiro Medina

TYPE Drawing

TYPE Drawing by © Jimenez and The AMO Herbaria Website

LATER EARLY

Common Name The Nipple Bearing Epidendrum [refers to the prominently papillose anther]

Flower Size .6" [1.5 cm]

Found in southern Colombia and northern Ecuador at elevations around 2000 meters as a mini-miniature to miniature sized, cool to cold growing, hanging epiphyte with simple, laterally compressed, new stems arise from the middle of the previous stem enveloped completely by evanescent, ancipitous sheaths and carrying all along the stem, greenish with pink tinge or dots, ovate, acute to apically bilobed, apical margins erose to fimbriate, sub-coriaceous, succulent leaves that blooms in the later spring through early summer on a terminal, without a spathe or bracts, occuring only once, hanging, sub-umbellate, simultaneously 4 flowered inflorescence with dorsally carinate, ovate, acuminate, slightly shorter to slightly longer than the ovary and carrying greenish flowers with a faint purple tinge, and the anther is green.

"Epidendrum thelephorum belongs to the GROUP Nanum and is closely related to Epidendrum milenae Dodson & R.Vásquez 1989, from which it can be distinguished by the shorter stems, the somewhat larger flowers, the midlobe of the lip ovate and about as long as wide, the more prominent clinandrium and the prominently papillose anther." Hagsater etal 1993

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Icones Orchidacearum 2 Plate 113 Hagsater & Sanchez 1993 see recognition section; * Icones Orchidacearum 2 Plate 192 Hagsater & Dodson 1993 drawing fide; Orquideologia 29: 1 Hagsater & Medina 2012 photo fide;

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