Epidendrum boricuarum Hágsater & L.Sánchez
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Authority
Ackerman, James D. 1995. An orchid flora of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 73: 1-203.
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Family
Orchidaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Plants epiphytic, caespitose, glabrous. Roots from rhizome and base of stems, 1.0-2.4 mm diam. Stems laterally compressed, erect to ascending, covered by smooth leaf sheaths, 15-28 cm tall. Leaves 6-12, green, distichous, subcoriaceous, sometimes fleshy, entire, oblong-elliptic to narrowly ovate, obtuse to acute 2-7 cm long, 0.5-2 cm wide. Inflorescences terminal on mature stems, subsessile, subumbellate, (1-)2- to 8-flowered; floral bracts inconspicuous, scarious 5 mm long. Flowers green, fragrant, resupinate. Pedicellate ovary slender, 2.2-3.7 cm long. Sepals subcoriaceous, glabrous, entire, 5-nerved, free; dorsal sepal elliptic, acute, 10-14 mm long, 2-4.7 mm wide; lateral sepals slightly asymmetric, elliptic-oblanceolate, acute, 11-13 mm long, 4-7 mm wide. Petals membranous, entire, 3-nerved, linear to linearoblanceolate, acute, 10-12 mm long, 0.7-3 mm wide. Lip adnate to the entire length of the column, lamina free, trilobed, broadest across lateral lobes, coriaceous at the center and membranous at the margins, 7-11 mm long, 14-19.5 mm wide; paired basal callosities rounded, flanking the entrance to the nectar tube; lateral lobes entire, rounded, suborbicular; midlobe smaller than lateral lobes, emarginate and forming two suborbicular lobes. Column arched, thick, apically dilated, 6-9 mm long, clinandrium entire; nectary penetrating the ovary 1/4 its length; rostellum subapical; pollinia 4, semiovate, laterally compressed, caudicles soft and granulose, viscidium viscous, translucent. Fruit ellipsoidal, 2-3 cm long.
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Discussion
2. Epidendrum boricuarum Hagsater & Sanchez, Icon. Orchid. 2: t. 114. 1993. Type. E. Hagsater 8751, Puerto Rico, Sierra de Luquillo, 18 July 1986, flowered in cultivation 31 July 1992 ( A M O , not seen). Taxonomic Notes. Epidendrum boricuarum is a recently described member of the E. difforme Jacquin complex. Traditionally, E. difforme has been regarded as a widespread, highly variable species (O. Ames et al., 1936), but recent studies have indicated that there are as many as 30 valid species within the complex (Hagsater, 1988). Hagsater and Sanchez (1993) distinguished E. boricuarum from other members of the E. difforme complex by its laterally compressed stems, the suborbicular lateral lobes of the lip with the apical lobe formed by 2 semiorbicular lobules, and the entire, not prominent clinandrium.
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Distribution
General Distribution. Puerto Rico.
Puerto Rico South America|