Epidendrum diffusum Sw. 1788 GROUP Seraphyta
Photo by © Diederick
Photo by AMO Website
Drawing by © Jimenez, Hágsater & E.Santiago and The AMO Herbario Website
Photo by Botanická zahrada a arboretum Mendelova zemedelská a lesnická univerzita v Brne.
to 
and EARLY 
Common Name The Double Cleft Epidendrum
Flower Size Less than 1/2" [less than 1.25 cm]
Found in Cuba, Jamaica, San Luis Potosí, Querétaro, Hidalgo, Veracruz, Oaxaca, Chiapas and Quintana Roo states of Mexico, Guatemala and Belize at elevations of sea level to 1600 meters rarely 2200 meters as a small to medium sized, hot to cool growing, reed stem epiphyte with clumped, simple, cane-like, with a short rhizome at the base, terete at the base, laterally compressed above, erect or arching, flexuous stems carrying 3 to 11, all along the stem, distichous, laterally compressed, imbricating leaf bases, coriaceous, green, the margin and underside frequently reddish, ovate-elliptic to oblong-lanceolate, obtuse to bilobed leaves that blooms in the spring and early summer on a terminal, erect, peduncle short, straight, without bracts, rachis terete, reddish, 12" [30 cm] long overall, paniculate, much branched, branches with triangular, acute bracts, simultaneoulsy 60 to 300 flowered inflorescence with much shorter than the ovary, triangular, acute, scarious floral bracts withresupinate, small, membranaceous, yellowish green to reddish green, translucid flowers with a greenish column, reddish when dry and without fragrance.
"Epidendrum diffusum belongs to the GROUP Seraphyta and is recognized by simple stems, numerous elliptic to lanceolate- elliptic leaves, and a much branched, paniculate inflorescence, up to twice the length of the stems, with many, very small, delicate, translucent flowers with an entire, ovate-cordiform lip; when dry the whole specimen turns conspicuously reddish." Hagsater etal 2008
Synonyms Epidendrum tenuiflorum Lindl. 1853; Seraphyta diffusa (Sw.) Pfitzer ex Fawc. & Rendle 1910; Seraphyta multiflora Fischer & Meyer 1840
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Symbolae Antillanae Vol VI Orchidaceae Urban 1909 as Seraphyta diffusa; Flora of Jamaica Fawcett & Rendle 1910 as Seraphyta diffusum drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 30 No 9 1961; Flora de Venezuela Foldats Volumen XV Part 3 1970 not; AOS Bulletin Vol 49 No 5 1979; Orchids Travel By Air A Pictoral Safari Mulder, Mulder-Roelfsema and Schuiteman 1990 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 64 No 6 1995 Photo; Icones Orchidacearum 5 & 6 Orchids Of Mexico Parts 2 & 3 Plate 572 Hagsater, Soto 2002 drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 74 No 5 2005 photo; Icones Orchidacearum 11 Plate 1118 Hagsater & Sanchez 2008 drawing fide;
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