Epidendrum wallisii Rchb. f. 1875 GROUP Oerstedella SUBGROUP Wallisii
Photo by © Jay Pfahl
Photo by © Dale and Deni Borders
Photo by Andy's Orchids Copyright © 2002 All rights reserved.
Photo by © Eric Hunt
TYPE Drawing by © Jimenez, Hágsater & E.Santiago and The AMO Herbario Website
to
and EARLY 
Common Name Wallis' Epidendrum [German Orchid Collector 1800's]
Flower Size 1 1/2" [3.75 cm]
Found in Ecuador, Colombia, Costa Rica and Panama in wet montane rain forests on citrus trees trunks or larger branches in partial shade at altitudes of 500 to 2100 meters as a large sized, warm to cold growing epiphtye, terrestrial or lithophyte with cylindric, cane-like, erect stems enclosed by verrucose leaf sheaths giving rise to distichous, elliptic-lanceolate, conduplicate at the base and are articulated to the basal leaf sheaths, acute leaves that blooms in the fall and early winter on a lateral or terminal, arching to pendulous, shorter to 4 to 6" [10 to 15 cm], few flowered inflorescence arising from the leaf axils and has ovate floral bracts, carrying long-lasting, waxy, fragrant flowers.
"Epidendrum wallisii belongs to the GROUP Oerstedella SUBGROUP Wallisii. The species is recognized by the larger fleshy, very showy flowers, sepals and petals yellow,generally with dark purple dots, the lip white turning yellow, with purple lines, or dark purple dots. Epidendrum pinniferum C Schweinf. has somewhat smaller flowers with sepals .6 to .68" [15 to 17 mm], reflexed sepals and petals, generally yellowish brown with more intense brown markings on the sepals, the lip is lilac-pink with multiple thickened veins; an albino form exists in Panama, with yellow and white flowers. Epidendrum lacteum Dressler has small plants, greenish creamy, immaculate sepals and petals, with a white lip and is apparently endemic to central Panama in the provincce of Veraguas. NOTE: The basis for the separation of E. pseudowallisii were slight differences in the wider petals and smaller, narrower lip, and the lack of keels on the lip. Withner stated that the Costa Rica flowers had a white lip, while those from Colombia haa prominent purple lines on the disc. Dressler (pers. comm.) has said that the variation he has seen in Colombia or Panama is much larger than between the flowers from Costa Rica and Colombia. We have observed the great variation in plants from Cerro jefe in Panama. Thus we have treated them all as a single species." Hagsater etal 2006
Synonyms Oerstedella wallisii (Rchb. f.) Hágsater 1981
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Die Orchideen Schlechter 1915; Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 7: 253 Schlechter 1920; Atlas des Orchidees Cultivees Constantin 1920 drawing fide; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965; AOS Bulletin Vol 38 #7 1969 photo fide; Die Orchideen 3 Auflage Bd 1 Sonderabdruck aus Schlechter Lieferung 9 513 - 576 Brieger, Maatsch and Senghas 1977; AOS Bulletin Vol 49 No 6 1980 photo fide; ORQUIDEA (Méx.) 9(2): 1984 photo fide; Native Colombian Orchids Vol 3 COS 1991 as Oerstedella wallisii photo fide; The Manual Of Cultivated Orchid Species Bechtel, Cribb & Launert 1992 as Oerstedella wallisii photo fide; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 1568 & 1568a Atwood 1993 as Oerstedella wallisii drawings fide; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 1569 Atwood 1993 as Oerstedella wallisii; Rudolf Schlechter Die Orchideen Band 1C lieferung 42 - 43 pg 2626 - 2762 Brieger 2001 as Oerstedella wallisii; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 3 Dodson 2002 photo fide; Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica Vol 3 Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003 as Oerstedella wallisii drawing fide; Icones Orchidacearum 8 Plate 849 Hagsater 2006 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 8 Plate 871 Hagsater 2006 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 8 Plate 871 Hagsater 2006 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum Vol 8 Plate 876 Hagsater & Sanchez 2006 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 8 Plate 899 Hagsater 2006 drawing fide; Orquideologia Vol 26 No 1 2009 photo fide; Orchids of Costa Rica Vol 1 Morales 2009 photo fide; Orchids of the Department of Valle De Cauca Colombia Vol 2 Kolanowska, Hagsater etal. 2014 photo drawing/fide; Orchids of the Darien Gap Kolanowska 2014 drawing fide; Orquideas, Tesoro de Colombia Vol 2 Ortiz & Uribe 2017 drawing/photo fide; Orquideas de Farallones de Cali Galindo-Tarazona, Haelterman, Zuluaga Trochez and Sebastian Moreno 2020 photo fide; Vanishing Beauty, Native Costa Rican Orchids Vol 2 Lacaena to Pteroglossa Pupulin 2020 photo fide
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