Epidendrum oerstedii Rchb.f 1852 GROUP Coilostylis
Photo by © Jay Pfahl
Photo by © Patricia Harding
Drawing TYPE Drawing by © Jimenez, Hágsater & E.Santiago and The AMO Herbario Website
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Common Name Oersted's Epidendrum [Danish Botanist 1800's]
Flower Size 3" [7.5 cm]
A small sized, erect, warm to cool growing epiphytic plant from Costa Rica and Panama in high canopy deciduous forests at elevations around 800 to 1150 meters with a creeping, terete rhizome carrying an erect, that has the upper 2 interenodes swollen and flattened to form a fusiform pseudobulb with scarious, imbricate, acuminate, evanescent sheaths in youth that can become shallowly grooved with age and carrying divergent, slightly recurved, elliptic or oblong-elliptic, rounded or somewhat retuse apically, dark green leaves that flowers in the spring through summer on an apical, short to 4.8" [12 cm] long, 2 to 3 flowered, racemose inflorescence arising on a newly forming pseudobulb that has a basal green sheath and simultaneously opening flowers.
"Epidendrum oerstedii Rchb.f. is part of GROUP Coilostylis characterized by the sympodial, caespitose plants, the stems forming a fusiform pseudobulb, with an apical, racemose, distichous inflorescence, the peduncle covered by large bracts (but not spathaceous bracts), and flowers large, star-shaped, with long, narrow sepals and petals. The species ranges from Honduras to central Panama, produces the inflorescence from the immature, short pseudobulb, the margins of the lip are entire and the mid-lobe is shorter 1 to 1.32" [25 to 33 mm] long, widened beyond the middle. Epidendrum esperanza-mejiae hsd canelike, barely thickened stems, 2 apical leaves, the inflorescence with an elongate peduncle somewhat longer than the leaves, flowers entirely white, including the calli, petals arched, and the lateral lobes of the lip obliquely semi-ovate, the inner margin a convex arch. Epidendrum ciliare L. is widely distributed from western Mexico (Nayarit) to Peru and Brazil and the Antilles, produces the inflorescence from the immature, more elongate pseudobulb, but the outer margins of the lateral lobes of the lip are deeply fimbriate, and the inner margin is straight, not strongly concave. Epidendrum megalemnum Carnevali & G.A.Romero ranges from the lesser Antilles and northern South America, flowers from the mature stem and the base of the inflorescence is enveloped in 5 to 10 imbricating, conduplicate bracts, shares the same shape of the lip with Epidendrum ciliare L. , which is sympatric. Epidendrum sandiorum (Hágsater, Karremans & L.Sánchez) Hágsater, Karremans & L.Sánchez has sub-spherical to ovoid pseudobulbs with a single apical leaf, the inflorescence produced from the immature stem, 3-lobed lip with the outer margin of the lateral lobes fimbriate to laciniate, and the .18" [45 mm] long mid-lobe is trullate beyond the middle, the apex long-acuminate, the margin erose." Adapted from plate 1617 Hagsater etal 2018
Synonyms Coilostylis oerstedii [Rchb.f] Withner & Harding 2004; Epidendrum costaricense Rchb.f 1852; Epidendrum cilare var oerstedii [Rchb.f] L.O.Wms 1946; Epidendrum umlauftii Zahlbr. 1893;
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI Atlas des Orchidees Cultivees Constantin 1920 as Epidendrum costaricense drawing fide; Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 17: 36. Panama Schlechter 1922; Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 19: 36. Costa Rica Schlechter 1923 as Epidendrum costaricensis; Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 19: 118. Costa Rica Schlechter 1923 as Epidendrum costaricensis; The Genus Epidendrum Ames 1936; The Orchids of Panama L.O. Williams & P Allen 1946 as Epidendrum ciliare var oerstedii; Ceiba Vol 5 No 1 L O Williams 1956 as Epidendrum ciliare var oerstedii; AOS Bulletin Vol 38 #4 1969 photo fideDie Orchideen 3 Auflage Bd 1 Sonderabdruck aus Schlechter Lieferung 9 513 - 576 Brieger, Maatsch and Senghas 1977 as Auliza oerstedii photo fide; Die Orchideen 3 Auflage Bd 1 Sonderabdruck aus Schlechter Lieferung 9 513 - 576 Brieger, Maatsch and Senghas 1977 as Auliza costaricensis; Orquideologia Vol 12 No 3/4 1977/8 oerstedii photo fide; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 726 Dodson 1982 drawing fide; Selbyana Vol 10 Orchids of Central America Hamer 1988 drawing fide; The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Orchids Pridgeon 1992 photo fide; The Manual Of Cultivated Orchid Species Bechtel, Cribb & Launert 1992 photo fide; Field Guide to the Orchids of Costa Rica and Panama Dressler 1993 ; Manual Of Orchids Stewart 1995 drawing fide; Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003 ; Australian Orchid Review Vol 69 No 4 2004; *The Cattleyas and Their Relatives, the Debateable Epidendrum Withner and Harding 2004 as Coilostylis oerstedii photo fide; Vanishing Beauty, Native Costa Rican Orchids Vol 1 Pupulin 2005 as Epidendrum oerstedii photo fide; Icones Orchidacearum Vol 11 Plate 1110 Hagsater & Sanchez 2008; Icones Orchidacearum 11 Plate 1119 Hagsater 2008 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum Vol 11 Plate 1151 Hagsater & Sanchez 2008 drawing fide; Icones Orchidacearum 11 Plate 1168 Hagsater 2008 see recognition section; Orchids of Costa Rica Vol 3 Morales 2009 photo fide; Icones Orchidacearum 13 Plate 1317 Hagsater & Santiago 2010 See recognition section; AOS Bulletin Vol 81 #6 2012 photo fide; Icones Orchidacearum 14 Plate 1483 Hagsater & Sanchez 2013 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 15 [1] Plate 1523 Hagsater & Sanchez 2015 see recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 16[1] Plate 1617 Hagsater & Santiago 2018 See Recognition section; Icones Orchidacearum 16[1] Plate 1641 Hagsater & Sanchez 2018 see recognition section; Orchid Genera and Species in Guatemala Archila, Szlachchetko, Chiron, Lipinska, Mystkowska and Bertolini 2018
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