Epidendrum violascens Ridl. 1887GROUP Violascens
Photo by © Dinets and his The Vladimir Dinets Homepage
Drawing by © Dunsterville & Garay and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website
Common Name The Violet Epidendrum [does not refer to the flowers, but the general coloring of the Stem, Leaves, Inflorescence and flower buds]
Flower Size .2" [5 mm]
Found in Venezuela, Guyana and northern Brazil at elevations around 2200 meters as a small sized, cold growing terrestrial with canelike, clumping, terete, branching, arising from near the apex of the previous stems carrying purple-brown, rigid, thick, the upperside variably medium green, dark green to greeny purple, underside nearly always puce except on young specimens leaves and blooms in the fall on a terminal, erect, lightly branching, to 6" [15 cm] long, few to several flowered inflorescence.
Dunsterville describes the non-resupinate flowers as light greeny yellow with maroon flushing on the dorsal side with fleshy sepals, the petals less so and the lip is light greeny yellow and the floral bracts are narrow and maroon in color, there are also 2 hard, creamy yellow pollina.
CAUTION!!!!!!The Photo above by Dinets is the closest that I have been able to find for this species and the closest to Dunsterville's Drawing, but the flowers do not appear to be non-resupinate.
Almost all photos on the net of this species are incorrect as they are all purple in color and are resupinate in form.
"Epidendrum violascens has terete leaves and the callus of the lip is tridentate. Both it and Epidendrum vincentinum belong to the GROUP Violascens which is recognized by the small, fast growing plants, sometimes producing subapical new stems, flat leaves, thin peduncle and rachis of the inflorescence, and numerous, small, delicate and generally greenish flowers. E vincentinum has .24 to .28" [6 to 7 mm] sized flowers, with a reniform lip, the margin minutely erose-ciliate, bicallose, with 3 verrucose keels." Adapted from E vincentinum Icones Plate 1197 Hagsater etal 2008
Synonyms Epidendropsis violascens (Ridl.) Garay & Dunst. 1976
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 6: 73 Schlechter 1919; Iconografia de Orchidaceae Do Brasil Hoehne 1949 drawing fide; Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated Vol 3 Dunsterville & Garay 1965 drawing fide; Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated Vol 6 Dunsterville & Garay 1965 as Epidendropsis violascens; Flora de Venezuela Volumen XV Part 3 Foldats 1970 drawing good; Orchidaceae Brasilense Band 1 Pabst & Dungs 1975 drawing ok; Orchids of Venezuela, an Illustrated Field Guide Vol 1 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 as Epidendropsis violascens drawing fide; Manual Of Orchids Stewart 1995; Venezuela Paraiso de Orquideas Romero 1997 photo fide; Orchids of Venezuela an Illustrated Field Guide Vol 1 Romero & Carnevali 2000 drawing fide; Rudolf Schlechter Die Orchideen Band 1C lieferung 42 - 43 pg 2626 - 2762 Brieger 2001 as Epidendropsis violascens drawing fide; Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana Vol 7 Steyermark, Berry, Yatskievych and Holst 2003 drawing fide; Icones Orchidacearum 11 Plate 1197 Hagsater 2008 see recognition section; Orquideas mde Roirama Luz & Franco 2012 photo ok?; LANKESTERIANA 20(2): 67–216. Ossenbach & Jenny 2020 collection sheet fide
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
