Epidendrum verrucosum Sw. 1806 GROUP Oerstedella SUBGROUP Verrucosum
Photo by © Lourens Grobler
Drawing by © Jimenez, Hágsater & E.Santiago and The AMO Herbario Website
LATE 
LATE 
Common Name The Warty Epidendrum [refers to the warty sheaths on the stem]
Flower Size .4" [1 cm]
Found from southern Mexico south to Nicaragua as well as Cuba and Jammaica in lower montane rainforests at elevations of 600 to 2600 meters as a miniature sized, warm to cold growing epiphyte, lithophyte or terrestrial with rigid, simple, cane-like, terete, thin but robust stems enveloped by warty, leafless sheaths below and carrying 13 to 30+ on the apical half, distichous, articulate, erect-spreading, lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, acuminate apically leaves that blooms in the late spring through fall on a terminal, without a spathe, occuring only once, peduncle terete, delgado to robust, straight, .8 to 2" [2 to 5 cm} long, paniculate, rarely racemose, erect, 4 to 16" {10 to 40 cm] long, slightly flexuous rachis, simultaneously 20 to 500 flowered inflorescence with lanceolate, acuminate, gradually shorter floral bracts and carrying resupinate flowers that are without fragrance except in Jamaica where they are scented.
"Epidendrum verrucosum 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 and without a viscidium, and the SUBGROUP Verrucosum recognized by the small to medium sized, membranaceous flowers with sepals and petals immaculate, a bilobed clinandrium-hood slightly surpassing the body of the column, obovoid, subequal pollinia with long granulose caudicles. The species is recognized by the tall plants to 10' [up to 3 m] long, paniculate inflorescence with numerous white flowers, the callus yellow, or sepals and petals white or greenish cream and the lip creamy-yellow, the lobes of the lip similar, rectangular-oblong, inserted at about 45°. It is similar to E. myrianthum Lindl. Which has somewhat smaller plants to 6' [1.8 m], similar but lilac-colored flowers. Epidendrum macdougallii (Hágsater) Hágsater has short, thin-stemmed plants to 3' [90 cm] tall) with a generally racemose inflorescence, the peduncle with several bracts, and lilac pink flowers." Hagsater etal 2006
Synonyms Amphiglottis verrucosa (Sw.) Acuña 1939; Epidendrum verrucosum var. hansenii C.D.Adams 1966; Epidendrum verrucosum var. majus R.Warner 1862; Oerstedella hansenii (C.D.Adams) Nir 2000; Oerstedella verrucosa (Sw.) Hágsater 1981; Oerstedella verrucosa var. hansenii (C.D.Adams) Nir 1994
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Symbolae Antillanae Vol VI Orchidaceae Urban 1909; Flora of Jamaica Fawcett & Rendle 1910 drawing fide; Catalogo Descriptivo de las Orquideas Cubanas Acuna 1938 as Amphiglottis verrucosa; The Genus Epidendrum Ames 1936; Ceiba Vol 5 No 1 L O Williams 1956; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965; Las Orquedias De El Salvador Vol 1 Hamer 1974 drawing/photo fide; Die Orchideen 3 Auflage Bd 1 Sonderabdruck aus Schlechter Lieferung 9 513 - 576 Brieger, Maatsch and Senghas 1977; Las Orquedias de El Salvador Vol 3 Hamer 1981 as Oerstedella verrucosa drawing fide; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 894 Dodson 1983 as Oerstedella verrucosa drawing fide; Guatemala Y Sus Orquideas Behar & Tinschert 1998 as Oerstedella verrucosa photo fide; Orchids of Mexico Hagsater, Soto, Salazar, Jimenez, Lopez and Dressler 2005; Icones Orchidacearum 8 Plate 856 Hagsater 2006 see recognition section; I cones Orchidacearum 8 Plate 866 Hagsater 2006 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 8 Plate 897 Hagsater 2006 drawing fide; Guia de Orquideas de Chiapas Carlos Rommel Beutelspacher Baigts 2013 photo fide; Algunas Orquideas de Mexico Tomo 1 Suarez 2013 photo fide; Orchid Flora of the Greater Antilles Ackerman 2014 drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 85 #3 2016 drawing fide; Orchid Genera and Species in Guatemala Archila, Szlachchetko, Chiron, Lipinska, Mystkowska and Bertolini 2018
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