Epidendrum jamaicense Lindley 1853 GROUP Arbusculum SUBGROUP Incomptum
Drawing/Photo by © R Jimenez and AMO Herbario Website
Photo by © Dale and Deni Borders.
to 
Common Name The Jamaican Epidendrum
Flower Size 1" [2.5 cm]
A reed stem Epidendrum from Jamaica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leewards, Puerto Rico, Windwards, French Guiana, Guyana and Venezuela in wet dense forests on thick trees or along rivers at elevations of 250 to 1600 meters that grows as a medium to large sized, well shaded, hot to cool growing epiphyte with a scandent stem giving rise to new stems from the middle of older ones and enveloped basally by sheaths and carrying many distichous, distal, rather thin, elliptic to oblong-elliptic, acute to subacuminate leaves that blooms on a terminal, arcuate to pendant, shorter, several flowered, racemose inflorescence that has successive opening, fragrant flowers.
"Epidendrum jamaicense belongs to the GROUP Arbusculum SUBGROUP Incomptum which is characterized by the successive lateral growths produced from the middle of the previous growth, few leaves aggregate towards the apex of the stems, a short apical inflorescence with fleshy greenish to violet-green flowers with short ovaries, the lip entire to 3-lobed, and the Proligerum Complex, which has the ovary inflated, forming a vesicle behind the perianth. The species is recognized by the sub-coriaceous leaves, the successive flowers with a prominent ventral nectary which inflates the ovary over two-thirds its length, acute petals, reniform, bicallose lip, straight column, narrow, and the enormous stigmatic cavity which occupies the whole length of the column. Epidendrum ochrochlorum Barb.Rodr. is green and has larger flowers, sepals .56 to .6" [14 to 15 mm] long, acute, the lip is very similar in shape, the base cordate, with the mid-lobe of the lip emarginate and thus bilobed, but the sides of the lip are obliquely revolute, so that in natural position it looks triangular. Epidendrum proligerum Barb.Rodr. is also larger, with the sepals .48 to .52" [12 to 13 mm] long, has the mid-lobe of the lip entire, not emarginate, with the base of the lip cuneate. Epidendrum morganii Dodson has a widely cordiform, entire lip, sepals .52 to .72" [13 to 18 mm] long, and single veined petals. " Hagsater etal 2018
Synonyms Amphiglottis jamaicensis (Lindl.) Acuña 1939; Epidendrum dichotomum Lindl. 1838;
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Symbolae Antillanae Vol VI Orchidaceae Urban 1909; Symbolae Antillanae Vol VI Orchidaceae Urban 1909 as E corymbosum; Flora of Jamaica Fawcett & Rendle 1910; Catalogo Descriptivo de las Orquideas Cubanas Acuna 1938 as Amphiglottis jamaicensis; Flore Descriptive des Antilles Francaises H. Stehle 1939 as E corymbosum drawing fide; Flora de Venezuela Foldats Volumen XV Part 3 1970 as Epidendrum ecostatum; Flora of the Lesser Antilles Garay & Sweet 1974; An Orchid Flora Of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands Ackerman 1995 drawing ok; Orchidaceae Antillanae Nir 2000; The Orchids of Cuba Llamacho & Larramendi 2005 photo fide; Icones Orchidacearum 8 Plate 834 Hagsater 2006 see recognition section; Orquideas de la Republica Dominicana Y Haiti Fernandez 2007 photo fide; Orchid Flora of the Greater Antilles Ackerman 2014; Icones Orchidacearum 15 [1] Plate 1506 Hagsater & Sanchez 2015 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 15 [1] Plate 1541 Hagsater & Sanchez 2015 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 16[1] Plate 1631 Hagsater & Santiago 2018 Drawing/photo fide; Icones Orchidacearum 16[2] Plate 1681 Hagsater & Sanchez 2018 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 17(1) Plate 1726 Hagsater & Jimenez 2019 see recognition section
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
