Epidendrum coriifolium Lindl. 1851 Photo by © Eric Hunt and His Orchid Website
Green Flower Photo courtesy of Weyman Bussey, plant grown by Howard Gunn
Plant and Inflorescence Photo courtesy of Paul Bernardeau
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Common Name The Leather-Like Leaf Epidendrum
Flower Size 1 1/2" to 2" [4 to 5 cm]
Occuring in Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Venezuela, in wet subtropical montane forests at elevations of 350 to 1500 meters as a medium sized, reedstem epiphyte or terrestrial on steep slopes with a creeping rhizome, compressed, gradually increasing in size stems completely concealed by distichous, imbricating sheaths carrying a single ligulate, obliquely bilobed, conduplicate below into the base leaf that is bright green on top and purple below with a terminal, erect, to 10" [25 cm] long, fractiflex, raceme that has few to many, fragrant [not nice] flowered inflorescence arising on a newly maturing psuedobulb with imbricating brown basal bracts and large, purple floral bracts occuring in the winter. The leaves when crushed have a very unpleasant fragrance.
Synonyms ; Epidendrum fuscopurpureum Schltr. 1922; Epidendrum imitans Schltr. 1921; Epidendrum magnibracteatum Ames 1922; Epidendrum palmense Ames 1923; Epidendrum subviolascens Schltr. 1923
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Venezuelan Orchids Vol 2 Dunsterville & Garay 1961; Flora de Venezuela Foldats Volumen XV Part 3 1970; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 530 Dodson 1984; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 1019 Dodson 1984; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 1522 Atwood 1993 as Epidendrum circinatum; Icones Orchidacearum Peruviarum Plate 042 Dodson 1993; Vanishing Beauty; Native Costa Rican Orchids Vol 1 Pupulin 2005; Vanishing Beauty; Native Costa Rican Orchids Vol 1 Pupulin 2005 as Epidendrum circinatum; Orchids of Bolivia Vol 2 Laelinae Vasquez and Ibisch 2004; Vanishing Beauty; Native Costa Rican Orchids Vol 1 Pupulin 2005 as Epidendrum palmense
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