''Epidendrum blepharistes'' is a species of

orchid Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowering ...

in the genus '' Epidendrum'' native to

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Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ''Eku ...

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, and

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Description

''Epidendrum blepharistes'' grows both terrestrially and epiiphytically at altitudes ranging from 1.0 km to 3.0 km in the Neotropics. Like other members of the subgenus ''E.'' subg. ''Amphiglottium'', ''E. blepharistes'' exhibits a sympodial growth habit, with individual stems covered from the base with close, tubular sheaths; on the upper part of the stem, these sheaths are the bases of the distichous leaves. ''E. blepharistes'' differs from most members of ''E.'' subg. ''Amphiglottium'' by frequently having a fusiform swelling, up to 1.5 dm long, at the base of each stem. The elongate, ovate, obtuse leaves can grow more than 22 cm long by 3 cm wide. The terminal peduncle is covered from its base in close tubular sheaths, and carries either a loose

panicle A panicle is a much-branched inflorescence. (softcover ). Some authors distinguish it from a compound spike inflorescence, by requiring that the flowers (and fruit) be pedicellate (having a single stem per flower). The branches of a panicle are of ...

(typical of the section ''E.'' sect. ''Polycladia'') consisting of rather few distant

raceme A raceme ( or ) or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are produced as the s ...

s, or a single raceme. The small flowers are a rich rose color with oval sepals up to 10 mm long by 4 mm wide, acuminate petals nearly the same length as the sepals but with a denticulate margin, and a quadrilobate lip which is adnate to the

column A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member. ...

to its apex. (Schweinfurth 1959 describes the lip as "deeply 3-lobed" and then describes the mid-lobe as "deeply bilobed at the apex".) The lateral lobes of the lip are more or less fringed. There are two calli where the lip diverges from the column, and a keel between them, running part way down the medial lobe of the lip. The

diploid Ploidy () is the number of complete sets of chromosomes in a cell, and hence the number of possible alleles for autosomal and pseudoautosomal genes. Sets of chromosomes refer to the number of maternal and paternal chromosome copies, respectively ...

chromosome number of ''E. blepharistes'' has been determined as 2''n'' = 40.page 251 of Leonardo P. Felix and Marcelo Guerra: "Variation in chromosome number and the basic number of subfamily Epidendroideae (Orchidaceae)" ''Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society'' 163(2010)234-278. The Linnean Society of London. downloaded October 2010 from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1095-8339.2010.01059.x/pdf

References

External links

The Internet Orchid Species Photo Encyclopedia
* http://maqui.ucdavis.edu/Images/Orchids/epidendrum_blepharistes.html * http://fm2.fieldmuseum.org/plantguides/guide_pdfs/166%20Maquipucuna%20orchids.pdf * picture of herbarium sheet: http://orchid.unibas.ch/phpMyHerbarium/3130/1////specimen.php * holotype of ''E. dolabrilobum'' herbarium sheet pictures: http://asaweb.huh.harvard.edu:8080/databases/specimens?id=110482 {{Taxonbar, from=Q5382740 blepharistes Orchids of Bolivia Orchids of Colombia Orchids of Costa Rica Orchids of Ecuador Orchids of Peru Orchids of Venezuela