Epidendrum apuahuense Mansf. 1930 GROUP Coilostylus

LCDP Photo by © L. O. Demarchi and AMO Herbaria Website

Common Name The Apuahua Epidendrum [refers to the Rio Apuaú, an affluent of the Rio Negro, across from Novo Airão, where the original type collection was made]

Flower Size 3.6" [9 cm]

Found in southern Venezuela and northern and is expected in neighboring Colombia in open environments, growing on small trees in white-sand soil areas as a mini miniature sized, hot to warm growing epiphyte with pseudobulbous, ovoid to obovoid, concealed by 3 to 4, close-fitting sheaths; sheaths .24 to .44" [0.6 to 1.1 cm] long, brown, membranaceous, margin entire, the apex acute all carrying 2 to 3 per pseudobulb, .48 to 1.56 x .832 to .52" [1.2 to 3.9 x 0.28 to 1.30 cm], at the apex of the pseudobulbs, elliptical to narrowly obovate, fleshy, dark green, the underside sometimes reddish green, margin entire, the apex acute to minutely 3-lobed leaves that blooms in the fall on a terminal, without a spathe, peduncle .2 to .8" [0.5 to 2.0 cm] long, rachis .16 to .6" [0.4 to 1.5 cm] long, simultaneously 2 to 4 flowered inflorescence with ovate floral bracts and carrying . , resupinate, ochre/light pink with veins of the lip reddish, or fully white.

"Epidendrum apuahuense can be morphologically compared to species with pseudobulbs and star-shaped flowers within the GROUP Coilostylus as described by Hágsater (1985), which are more similar to E. hagsateri Christenson and E. volutum Lindl. & Paxton These two species have a reflexed lip, a feature also present E. apuahuense, but it can be easily distinguished from both species by its vegetative portion with much shorter leaves (up to 1.56" [3.9 cm] long vs. 2 to 8.4" [5 to 21 cm] long and shorter pseudobulbs up to .12" [0.3 cm] long vs. 1.6 to 6" [4 to 15 cm] long. The flowers are also useful to distinguish the species, and E. apuahuense can be recognized by its ventrally inflated cuniculus forming a nectary (vs. not inflated). Distribution is also a useful feature for distinguishing among species. Epidendrum volutum is known from Costa Rica and Panama, E. hagsateri is known only from Mexico, and E. apuahuense grows in the Amazon Basin. A phylogenetic reconstruction was performed using nuclear (ITS rDNA) and plastid (matK exon, rpl32- trnL spacer, trnL intron, and trnL-trnF spacer) datasets, aiming to clarify the generic placement of this taxon. Our results strongly support keeping E. apuahuense under Epidendrum (Klein et al. 2019)." Hagsater etal 2019

Synonyms Encyclia apuahuensis (Mansf.) Pabst, 1967; Prosthechea apuahuensis (Mansf.) Van den Berg, 2001

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Icones Orchidacearum 17(1) Plate 1704 Hagsater & Jimenez 2019 drawing/photo fide

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