Epidendrum muricatoides Hágsater & Dodson 1993 GROUP Goodspeedianum
Photo by © Eric Hagsater
TYPE Drawing by © Hagsater and The AMO Herbaria Website
Common Name The E muricatum-Like Epidendrum
Flower Size .8” [2 cm]
Found in southwestern Colombia and northwestern Ecuador on rocks and exposed ground in very wet, tall forests at elevations around 600 meters as a medium to giant sized, warm growing terrestrial or lithophyte with simple, cane-like, terete, erect, straight stems carrying numerous all along the stem, elliptic, acute, clearly marked veins, membraneous leaves that blooms in the spring and summer on a terminal, paniculate but racemose if stressed or youthful, erect, arcuate, peduncle short, terete, erect, with none to 2, lanceolate, acuminate bracts, 7.2 to 9.8" [18 to 24 cm] long, simultaneously 12 to 140 flowered inflorescence with much longer to shorter than the ovary, lanceolate, acuminate, progressively shorter above floral bracts and carrying resupinate, thin, slightly fragrant, light ochre colored flowers with the lip and column white and the base green.
"Epidendrum muricatioides is part of GROUP Goodspeedianum characterized by the sympodial, caespitose, cane like stems, paniculate inflorescence, leaves with prominently marked veins, flowers with an entire lip and the margin erose to fimbriate and has filiform petals. The species closely resembles E. goodspeedianum A.D. Hawkes (=E. muricatum Rchb. f., non Poir.) both vegetatively and florally; it is, however, easily distinguished by the very long bracts of the lowermost flowers of the inflorescence, much longer than the respective ovaries, the erose not fimbriate margins of the lip and the sparse, translucent trichomes on the ovary and the outer surface oí the sepals (not densely muricate). Both species are easily recognized in the field by the large, bright green leaves with clearly marked veins, somewhat resembling the leaves of maize. Epidendrum calothyrsus Schltr. has muricate ovaries, very large bracts at the base of the inflorescence and the lip deeply erose.'Hagsater etal 1993
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Icones Orchidacearum 2 Plate 161 Hagsater 1993 drawing fide; Icones Orchidacearum 2 Plate 178 Hagsater & Dodson 1993 see distribution section; Icones Orchidacearum 14 Plate 1425 Hagsater & Santiago 2013 See recognition section; Orchids of the Department of Valle De Cauca Colombia Vol 2 Kolanowska, Hagsater etal. 2014 Drawing/photo fide; Orquideas, Tesoro de Colombia Vol 2 Ortiz & Uribe 2017 drawing/photo fide; Orquideas de Farallones de Cali Galindo-Tarazona, Haelterman, Zuluaga Trochez and Sebastian Moreno 2020 photo fide
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