Epidendrum leucochilum Klotzsch 1843GROUP Excisum SUBGROUP Leucochilum Photo courtesy of Eric Hunt

Inflorescence Photo courtesy of Jay Pfahl.

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Common Name The White Flowered Epidendrum

Flower Size 4" [10 cm]

Found in Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Peru in wet montane forests at elevations of 1000 to 3100 meters as a large sized, caespitose, warm to cool growing, terrestrial, lithophyte or epiphyte with erect, leafy reed-stems carrying elliptic, emarginate, coriaceous, gradually becoming conduplicate below leaves that blooms in nature in the fall, winter or spring on lateral to pendant, terminal, racemose, 16" [40 cm] long, cylindric inflorescence arising on a mature stem from a large, compressed spathe that completely envelops the peduncle and carries minute floral bracts and numerous, spidery, fragrant flowers.

Recent research has shown that the name E longiflorum long associated with this species was used previously for an Indian species in 1791 by Koenig so according to Nomenclature rules this name becomes invalid and so E leucochilum takes precedence.

Synonyms Epidendrum flavidum Lindl. 1846; Epidendrum leucarachne Schltr. 1920; Epidendrum longiflorum Kunth 1815 Epidendrum spectatissimum Reichb.f. 1855; Epidendrum splendidum Schltr. 1921

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Bonplandia Rchb.f 1854; Bonplandia Rchb.f 1855 as E spectatissimum; Die Orchideen der Sudamerikanischen Kordillerenstaaten III Ecuador Schlechter 1921 as E splendidum; Beitrage Zur Orchideenkunde Von Colombia 27:68 Schlechter 1924; Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated Vol 1 Dunsterville & Garay 1959 as Epidendrum leucochilum; AOS Bulletin Vol 39 No 7 1970 photo as E leucochilum; Flora de Venezuela Foldats Volumen XV Part 3 1970 as Epidendrum leucochilum; Fieldiana Biology, Vol 33, 1st Supple. to the Orchids of Peru Scweinfurth 1970 as E leuchochilum; AOS Bulletin Vol 49 No 10 1980 photo as Epidendrum leucochilum; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 087 Dodson 1980 as E leuchochilum; Native Colombian Orchids Vol 5 COS 1994; Icones Orchidacearum Peruviarum Plate 463 Bennett & Christenson 1998; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 2 Dodson 2002; Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana Vol 7 Steyermark, Berry, Yatskievych and Holst 2003; AOS Bulletin Vol 74 No 10 2005 photo; Orquideologia Vol 26 No 1 2009 photo; Orchid Species of Peru Zelenko Bermudez 2009 photo fide; Icones Orchidacearum Part 12 Plate 1260 Hagsater 2009 drawing fide;

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