Epidendrum trachydipterum Hágsater, Nauray & E.Santiago 2013 GROUP Diothonea SUBGROUP Diothonea

TYPE Drawing by © Nauray and The AMO Herbaria Website

LATE EARLY

Common Name The Two Rough Epidendrum [refers to the wings of the column and the dorsally muricate sepals which separate this species from E trachysepalum]

Flower Size 1" [2.5 cm]

Found in southern Peru on the Cordillera Oriental near Machu-Picchu in cloud forests at elevations around 3100 meters as a small sized, cold growing epiphyte with cane-like, terete, thin, slightly arching stems carrying about 10, most likely all along the stem, distichous, articulate, sub-coriaceous, linear-lanceolate, obtuse, margine entire leaves that blooms in the late winter and early spring on a terminal, without a spathe, occuring only once, arching, peduncle to .32" [8 mm] long, 1" [2.5 cm] long overall, lax, simultaneously 5 to 6 flowered inflorescence with prominent, less than half the length of the ovary, narrowly triangular, acuminate, amplexicaul floral bracts and carrying resupinate, greenish brown flowers without fragrance data.

"Epidendrum trachydipterum belongs to the GROUP Diothonea SUBGROUP Diothonea which is characterized by the branching plants, linear lanceolate to oblong, bilobed leaves, racemose, arching-nutant inflorescence, membranaceous, rarely fleshy flowers, the entire to 3-lobed, ecallose lip with the margin erose without or with 1 to 10 thin, smooth to erose ribs, the column completely to obliquely united to the lip, the anther reniform. The species is recognized by the greenish brown flowers, the sepals ca. .4 to .44" [10 to 11 mm] long dorsally ornate with spine-like appendages, lip united to the column, deeply 3-lobed, the mid-lobe forming two lobes separated by a deep, narrow sinus, the disc with 5 parallel, laminar ribs, the apex of the column with a pair of prominent rounded wings. Epidendrum trachysepalum Hágsater is vegetatively similar, also with long, narrow leaves, but the lip is totally free from the column, cuneate at the base, disc provided with 5 ribs which disappear towards the apical half of the lip, but are very prominent towards the sac-like base of the lip, where they are hidden under the column; the lateral ribs are united at the base in the shape of a narrowly inverted “U”, plicate and hollow, the central rib is hidden, straight, and smooth. Epidendrum trachypentatropis Hágsater & E.Santiago has shorter leaves and smaller flowers with sepals .22 to .248" [5.5 to 5.7 mm] long, the lip is ornate with 5 prominent, short, unequal, high ribs, hidden beneath the column. Epidendrum astetei Hágsater, Collantes & Mormontoy has yellow greenish flowers with veins and edges lined purple, the sepals dorsally glabrous .4 to .48" [10 to 12 mm] long, the column thick, nearly totally united to the lip and with a column foot that forms a sac-like prominence at the base of the sub-pandurate lip, the margin hyaline, dentate, the disc with 5 laminar keels which become prominent within the sac of the lip, under the column, the lateral ribs are united at the base in the shape of a narrowly inverted “U”, the central rib is hidden, straight, and smooth." Hagsater etal 2013

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Icones Orchidacearum Peruviarum Plate 657 Bennett & Christenson 2001 as E trachysepalum not drawing fide; Icones Orchidacearum 14 Plate 1409 Hagsater & Santiago 2013 See recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 14 Plate 1420 Hagsater & Santiago 2013 See recognition section; * Icones Orchidacearum 14 Plate 1490 Hágsater, Nauray & E.Santiago 2013 drawing fide;

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