Epidendrum pansamalae Schltr. 1912 GROUP Oerstedella SUBGROUP Aberrans
Photos by © Sune Holt
Drawing by © Jimenez, Hágsater & E.Santiago and The AMO Herbario Website
Common Name The Pansamala Epidendrum [a town in Guatemala]
Flower Size 1.2" [3 cm]
Found in Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama in elfin forests at elevations of 600 to 1500 meters as a warm to cool growing epiphyte with non-branching, slender, leaf-bearing in the apical 1/4 completely enveloped by scarious, tubular, verrucose sheaths, erect canes carrying 7 to 14, distributed nearly throughout the stem, alternate,
articulate, subcoriaceous, generally deciduous, blade linear-lanceolate to lanceolate, apex
acuminate, minutely apiculate, margin entire, basally clasping leaves that blooms in the fall on a terminal, apical, flowering only once, peduncle terete, thin, straight, short, provided with 1 to 2 narrowly triangular, acuminate bracts, rachis
terete, thin, zigzag, racemose to rarely paniculate, each raceme with 3 to 14 flowers,
suberect, 2" [5 cm] long, subdense, fractiflex, simultaneously 3 to 35 flowered inflorescence with much shorter than the ovary triangular-lanceolate, acuminate floral bracts and carrying resupinate flowers.
Can be confused with E. centropetalum Rchb.f. (syn . E. centradenia Rchb.f.) but differs in the unbranched growth habit and an entire midlobe [not bilobed] and the wider, obtuse lateral lobes of the lip.
"Epidendrum pansamaJae belongs to the GROUP Oerstedella which is characterized by the sympodial habit,
mostly verrucose stems, and the rostellum which is perpendicular to the axis of the column instead of parallel, forming a wide, open sinus, without a viscidium, and the SUBGROUP Aberranswhich has small, membranaceous flowers with a prominent clinandrium-hood, with unequal, bird-wing type pollinia, the inner pair much smaller than the outer pair, and the
pollinia very flat and translucent. The species is recognized by the intense plnk-colored flowers, with a promlnent, white,
deeply dentate clinandrium-hood, the oblong, spreading lateral lobes of the lip longer and narrower than those of the
flabellate midlobe which lacks any apical sinus, with a narrow, short isthmus, and the bicallose callus. The similarly colored
E. centropetalum Rchb.f. (syn . E. centradenia Rchb.f.) has a straggling habit with thinner stems, shorter inflorescences, and a
large wide lip with triangular lateral lobes and the midlobe "V" Shaped, and a tridentate callus. Epidendrum aberrans Schltr.
also as pink flowers, though the lip is white to pink, the inflorescence is elongate, and the bicallose midlobe has a long, narrow isthmus with parallel sides, and 4 similar, acute
lobes. Epidendrum crescentilobum Ames has a racemose
inflorescence generally secund and in a horizontal
position, with all the flowers positioned on the upper side, small
flowers with sepals.24 to .32" [6 to 8 mm] long, and the midlobe with a long, narrow isthmus aná divaricate lobes arching backwards." Hagsater etal 2006
Synonyms Epidendrum dunnii A.D.Hawkes 1952; Oerstedella pansamalae (Schltr.) Hágsater 1981
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
The Genus Epidendrum Ames 1936 as Epidendrum pansamalae; Ceiba Vol 5 No 1 L O Williams 1956 as E dunnii; Ceiba Vol 5 No 1 L O Williams 1956; Die Orchideen 3 Auflage Bd 1 Sonderabdruck aus Schlechter Lieferung 9 513 - 576 Brieger, Maatsch and Senghas 1977 as Oerstedella pansamalae; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 893 Dodson, Hamer 1983 as Oerstedella pansamalae drawing fide; Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica Vol 3 Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003 as Oerstedella pansamalae; Orchids of Mexico Hagsater, Soto, Salazar, Jimenez, Lopez and Dressler 2005;
Icones Orchidacearum 8 Plate 801 Hagsater and Sanchez 2006 see recognition section;
Icones Orchidacearum 8 Plate 817 Hagsater and Sanchez 2006 see recognition Section;
Icones Orchidacearum 8 Plate 825 Hagsater and Sanchez 2006 see recognition Section;
Icones Orchidacearum 8 Plate 867 Hagsater and Sanchez 2006 Drawing fide;
Icones Orchidacearum 9 Plate 993 Hagsater 2007 see recognition section; Orchids of Costa Rica Vol 3 Morales 2009 photo fide; Orchid Genera and Species in Guatemala Archila, Szlachchetko, Chiron, Lipinska, Mystkowska and Bertolini 2018; Vanishing Beauty, Native Costa Rican Orchids Vol 2 Lacaena to Pteroglossa Pupulin 2020 photo fide
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