Epidendrum longiflorum Kunth 1815

GROUP Excisum SUBGROUP Longiflorum Photo courtesy of Eric Hunt

Inflorescence Photo courtesy of Jay Pfahl.

Fragrance Warm to Cool Fall Winter or Spring

Common Name The Long-Flowered Epidendrum [Refers to the long ovary of the flower]

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.

Synonyms Epidendrum flavidum Lindl. 1846; Epidendrum leucarachne Schltr. 1920; Epidendrum leucochilum Klotzsch 1843; Epidendrum spectatissimum Reichb.f. 1855; Epidendrum splendidum Schltr. 1921

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; 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; AOS Bulletin Vol 74 No 10 2005 photo;

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