Epidendrum jamaicense Lindl.

  • Authority

    Ackerman, James D. 1995. An orchid flora of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 73: 1-203.

  • Family

    Orchidaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Epidendrum jamaicense Lindl.

  • Description

    Species Description - Plants epiphytic, often pendent, glabrous herbs. Roots few to many, 2-3.5 mm diam. Stems branched, canelike, covered by persistent leaf sheaths, to 50 cm long. Leaves deciduous, several persistent near branch apices, distichous; blades narrowly elliptic, acuminate, to 11 cm long, 2.5 cm wide. Inflorescences terminal, often nodding; peduncle 1-2 cm long; raceme simple, rarely branched, with to 12 sequentially produced flowers; floral bracts linear-lanceolate, 3-9 mm long. Flowers green, resupinate, perianth spreading. Pedicellate ovary 2-2.5 cm long; ovarian nectar tube gibbous, ca. 1 cm long. Dorsal sepal entire, 3-nerved, ellipticoblanceolate, acuminate, to 16 mm long, 5 mm wide; lateral sepals 4-nerved, entire, falcate, oblanceolate, 18 mm long, 6 mm wide. Petals entire, 1-nerved, linear-oblanceolate, acute, to 15 mm long, 2.5 mm wide. Lip adnate to the length of the column; lamina simple, thick, very stiff, paired calli at base, subcordate, transversely elliptic to subreniform, basal margin and apex abruptly recurved, 8-10 mm long, 12-14 mm wide (not spread). Column straight, stout, expanded apically, 9 mm long; pollinia 4. Fruit pendent, ellipsoidal.

  • Discussion

    12. Epidendrum jamaicense Lindley, Fol. Orchid. Epidendrum 82. 1853. Amphiglottis jamaicensis (Lindley) Acuna, Bol. Estac. Exp. Santiago (Cuba) 60: 101. 1939. Holotype. Purdie s.n., from Dunrobin Castle, Jamaica (K-L). Phenology & Pollination. Plants bloom from June to November. Pollinators are presumably moths. Taxonomic Notes. In some floristic works of the West Indies, Epidendrum jamaicensis is known as either E. corymbosum Lindley or Amphiglottis corymbosa (Lindley) Britton (a homonym renamed E. ecostatum Pabst), but this concept applies to a South American species (lectotype, Miers 3484, from Brazil, K-L).

  • Distribution

    General Distribution. West Indies.

    West Indies|