Which Epidendrum?

[Afid]

Originally Posted by Dollythehun

Afid. Please elaborate. I can't see the difference but want to learn.

Sorry it took me so long to respond, I was going to do it right away but it slipped my mind.

If you look at this picture of E. radicans you can see the lip calli look like two small blobs on either side of a long wavy ridge. http://www.orchidspecies.com/orphotdir/epiradicans.jpg

Whereas in E. melinanthum the callus is more of a lumpy blob at the base of the lip.
http://www.orchidspecies.com/orphotd...elinanthum.jpg

Also, E. radicans has larger and less fimbriate (fringed) lateral lobes of the lip.

Having said all that, I am still not entirely confident with the ID of E. melinanthum for this plant, if you zoom in on the flowers you can see the lip calli are a little more separate from each other (appearing as three blobs instead of one, slightly three-lobed blob like in the IOSPE photo of E. melinanthum).

Hopefully this helps clarify a little bit, if not let me know and feel free to ask any questions, I'd be happy to answer them!

[Dollythehun]

I'm gonna look at my radicans right now! I, Yi, Yi, Afid! I think this is radicans. I'll try to post a close up.

[neophyte]

Epi. radicans is usually red-orange. There are many reed-stem Epidendrums; this could be a hybrid or one of those several species.

The only pink reed-stem I know is E. ibaguense but I'm not sure/don't think this is it.

[Dollythehun]

It came to me third hand from S America. I asked an orchid dealer to ID it. He said radicans. After looking at Afid's pictures, I'm still murky. But, the picture looks (to me) like radicans.

[Pitter]

Thank you for the excellent explanation Afid, most informative!

[neophyte]

Afid, I was trying to discriminate between 3 Psychopsis species because they all looked so alike, so I heeded your advice, looked closely at the callus/column, and managed to spot the difference. They're almost the only distinguishing features – it's amazing.