Epidendrum vale-ramiroi L Valenz, E Santiago and Hagsater 2021 GROUP Saxicola
Photo by E. Becerra/TYPE Drawing by L Valenzuela and R. Jimenez M and Icones Orchidacearum 18(2) Plate 1895 Valenzuela, Santiago & Hagsater 2021
LATE 
Common Name Vale Ramiro's Epidendrum [Dedicated to Ramiro Valenzuela Gamarra (1976-2018), Peruvian, the first author's brother, who, as a professional tour guide with a particular interest in learning about plants, participated in many botanical expeditions conducted by the Missouri Botanical Garden in Peru] collaborating in the botanical collections of many specimens, many of them orchids.
Flower Size 1.2" [3 cm]
Found in Pasco department of Peru in sclerophyllous forests at elevations of 2700 to 3000 meters as a mini-miniateure to miniature sized, cold growing, rhizomatous, sympodial, caespitose epiphyte with stems forming fusiform pseudobulbs, covered by 2 to 3, non-foliar, scarious, and becoming fibrous over time sheaths and carrying a single, apical, elliptic, obtuse, articulated, coriaceous, entire margin leaf that blooms in the summer on a terminal, arisijng through a tubular apically obtuse spathe, peduncle 2.2 to 2.4" [5.5 to 6 cm] long, [5.5 to 6.0 cm] long, thin, erect, straight, rachis short, .4 to .6" [1.0 to 1.5 cm] long, 2.6 to 4" [6.5 to 10.0 cm] long including apical flowers, erect, longer than the leaf, racemose, simultaneously 2 to 3 flowered inflorescence with much shorter than the ovary, ovate triangular with the acute apexfloral bracts and carrying resupinate flowers without fragrance data.
"Epidendrum vale-ramiroi belongs to the GROUP Saxicola characterized by having pseudobulbous stems, caespitose habit, a prominent spathaceous bract, an erect inflorescence with few purple or yellow flowers. The species is recognized for having petals and sepals dorsally pink, yellowish white ventrally, lip yellow, column yellowish white, sepals .8 to .92" [20 to 23 mm] long, oblanceolate, petals .72 to .8 x .08 to .12" [18 to 20 x 2.0 to 3.0 mm], linear-oblanceolate, a lip rhombic with the base cuneate, apex acuminate, and an ovary inflated ventrally behind the perianth. Epidendrum magnisaxicola Hágsater, Edquén & E.Santiago, has the greenish-yellow flowers with sepals tinged brown, .96 to 1" [24 to 25 mm] long, petals 1" x .16" [25 x 4.0 mm], oblanceolate, and the lip is rhombic-ovate with the base truncate and the apex obtuse. Epidendrum microcattleyioides D.E.Benn. & Christenson has yellow flowers with the margins white, sepals.48 to .52" [12 to 13 mm] long, the lip reniform, widely emarginate with a single mid-rib, and the ovary geniculate. Epidendrum saxicola Kraenzl. has purple flowers with a white lip tinged purple, sepals .6" [15 mm] long, petals .52 x .01" [13 x 2.5 mm], and the lip sub-orbicular to obscurely pentagonal. Epidendrum herreranum C.Schweinf. has reddish brown flowers with the central surface of the floral segments yellow, the lip 3-lobed, the lateral lobes obliquely rounded-dolabriform, and the petals .76 x .44" [19 x 11 mm], rhombic-spathulate. Epidendrum milpoense Hágsater & E.Santiago has green flowers, sepals .72 to .76" [18 to 19 mm] long, petals .64 to .7" x .2 to .28" [16 to 17.5 x 5 to 7 mm], rhombic-spatulate, and the lip.44 x .6" [11 x 15 mm], widely cordiform with a strongly cordate base, disc fleshy with 3 low ribs which reach the apex." Hagsater etal 2021
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Icones Orchidacearum 18(2) Plate 1895 Hagsater & Jimenez 2021 LCDP Photo/photo fide;
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
