''Epidendrum parvilabre'' is a
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 ...
terrestrial orchid native to the mountainous (~2 km) tropical rainforests of
Ecuador
Ecuador ( ; ; Quechuan languages, Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar language, Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechuan ...
and
Piura
Piura is a city in northwestern Peru located in the Sechura Desert on the Piura River. It is the capital of the Piura Region and the Piura Province. Its population was 484,475 as of 2017.
It was here that Spanish Conqueror Francisco Pizarro ...
,
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 ...
.
Description
The sympodial stems of ''E. parvilabre'' are so thick that
Reichenbach Reichenbach may refer to:
Places Austria
* Reichenbach (Litschau), a part of Litschau
* Reichenbach (Rappottenstein), a part of Rappottenstein
Germany
* Reichenbach (Oberlausitz), in Niederschlesischer Oberlausitzkreis district, Saxony
* Rei ...
described them as
pseudobulbs
The pseudobulb is a storage organ found in many epiphytic and terrestrial sympodial orchids. It is derived from a thickening of the part of a stem between leaf nodes and may be composed of just one internode or several, termed heteroblastic and h ...
,
[ H. G. Reichenbach nr. 129 "Orchides" in C. Müller, Ed. ''Walpers. Annales Botanices Systematicae'', 6(1861)351. Berlin] although Dodson & Bennett 1969 did not follow suit, noting only that the stems are unifoliate. The oblong suboblique emarginate leathery leaves are longer than the stems. The densely flowered
racemose
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 sh ...
inflorescence erupts from a double or triple spathe at the apex of the pseudobulb, similar to the subgenus
''E''. subg. ''Spathium''. The flower bracts are small and acute. The flowers are a little more than 1 cm across, with green sepals and petals, and a white
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 ...
with purple spots. The sepals are oblong-obtuse, 1 cm long, and 3–4 mm wide; the falcate revolute lateral sepals are slightly shorter and wider than the plicate dorsal sepal. The linear petals are much narrower than the sepals. The deeply trilobate lip is
adnate
Adnate may refer to:
* Adnation, in botany, the fusion of two or more whorls of a flower
* Adnate, in mycology, a classification of lamellae (gills)
* Conjoined twins
Conjoined twins – sometimes popularly referred to as Siamese twins – are ...
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. The lateral lobes of the lip are falcate and very acute. The very narrow medial lobe of the lip is cuneate and trilobed at its apex.
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q5382791
parvilabre
Orchids of Ecuador
Orchids of Peru