''Epidendrum compressum'' ("compressed upon a tree") 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 ''Epidendrum'' , abbreviated Epi in the horticultural trade, is a large neotropical genus of the orchid family. With more than 1,500 species, some authors describe it as a mega-genus. The genus name (from Greek ''επί, epi'' and ''δένδρο ...

'' from wet montane forests of Trinidad, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia.

Nomenclatural history

Eduard Friedrich Poeppig Eduard Friedrich Poeppig (16 July 1798 – 4 September 1868) was a German botanist, zoologist and explorer. Biography Poeppig was born in Plauen, Saxony. He studied medicine and natural history at the University of Leipzig, graduating with a med ...

Stephan Endlicher Stephan Ladislaus Endlicher also known as Endlicher István László (24 June 1804, Bratislava (Pozsony) – 28 March 1849, Vienna) was an Austrian botanist, numismatist and Sinologist. He was a director of the Botanical Garden of Vienna. Bio ...

published the first description of this orchid in 1836, and called it ''Epidendrum laxum''. However, because this name had already been used by Olof Swartz in 1788 to describe a very different orchid, now known as ''Pleurothallis laxa'', ''Epidendrum laxum'' Poepp. &

Endl. Stephan Ladislaus Endlicher also known as Endlicher István László (24 June 1804, Pressburg, Bratislava (Pozsony) – 28 March 1849, Vienna) was an Austrian Empire, Austrian botanist, numismatist and Sinologist. He was a director of the Botan ...

(1836) became an

Illegitimate name ''Nomen illegitimum'' (Latin for illegitimate name) is a technical term, used mainly in botany. It is usually abbreviated as ''nom. illeg.'' Although the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants uses Latin terms for other ki ...

. It was under this illegitimate name that Reichenbach, in 1861, classified ''E. compressum'' into his section ''Polycladia'' of Lindley's subgenus ''Amphiglotium'' of the genus ''Epidendrum''. In 1864,

August Grisebach August Heinrich Rudolf Grisebach () was a German botany, botanist and phytogeography, phytogeographer. He was born in Hannover on 17 April 1814 and died in Göttingen on 9 May 1879. Biography Grisebach studied at the Lyceum in Hanover, the clo ...

published a description of the species ''Epidendrum compressum'', the

binomial Binomial may refer to: In mathematics *Binomial (polynomial), a polynomial with two terms * Binomial coefficient, numbers appearing in the expansions of powers of binomials *Binomial QMF, a perfect-reconstruction orthogonal wavelet decomposition ...

now accepted by Kew.

Description

According to Poeppig, ''E. compressum'' grows

epiphytically An epiphyte is an organism that grows on the surface of a plant and derives its moisture and nutrients from the air, rain, water (in marine environments) or from debris accumulating around it. The plants on which epiphytes grow are called phoroph ...

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...

vian forests east of the crest of the

Andes The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...

and flowers in February. The

sympodial Sympodial growth is a bifurcating branching pattern where one branch develops more strongly than the other, resulting in the stronger branches forming the primary shoot and the weaker branches appearing laterally. A sympodium, also referred to a ...

plant produces stems more than 3 dm tall, each of which seldom bears more than three acute, oblong-lanceolate leaves. The elongate terminal multi-flowered panicle grows 3 dm long or longer. The small pale green flowers have nearly equal-sized, erect, sharply pointed lanceolate sepals. By placing "''Epidendrum Laxum''" in ''Amphiglotium'', Reichenbach was stating that the base (at least) of the inflorescence was covered by thin, imbricate sheaths. Dodson and BennettC. Dodson & C. Bennett, ''Icones Plantarum Tropicarum, Series II: Orchids of Peru'', Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO, 1989. Plate 0060 describe an ''E. compressum'' from Pasco,

, and state that the

perianth The perianth (perigonium, perigon or perigone in monocots) is the non-reproductive part of the flower, and structure that forms an envelope surrounding the sexual organs, consisting of the calyx (sepals) and the corolla (petals) or tepals when ...

segments as brown, the

lip The lips are the visible body part at the mouth of many animals, including humans. Lips are soft, movable, and serve as the opening for food intake and in the articulation of sound and speech. Human lips are a tactile sensory organ, and can be ...

darker than the rest. The sepals are lanceolate, the petals are linear, and the lip is deeply trilobate, with the central lobe curved backward and the side lobes curved inward. The illustration in Dodson and Bennett shows a single stem, ~ 0.5 dm tall, bearing seven leaves and terminating in a two-flowered inflorescence of the same length. The inflorescence in the illustration carries some spathes, but emerges naked from the leaf-bearing part of the stem, and is not covered by imbricate sheaths.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q10758606 compressum Orchids of Bolivia Orchids of Colombia Orchids of Ecuador Orchids of Peru Orchids of Venezuela Orchids of Trinidad Plants described in 1836