Characteristics
They are quite varied in flower size and appearance. They grow in tufts, in racemose inflorescences, sometimes in corymbs or panicles. The apical, lateral or basal flowers are mostly small to medium in size and frequently are not marked by a conspicuous display. The inflorescences are frequently dense. Many species are fragrant. The flowers may be produced only once, or during several years from the same or new inflorescences. The ellipsoid fruits are 3-ribbed capsules.
This genus has the following characteristics:
- a slit rostellum (small extension or little beak to the median stigma lobe), producing a transparent or white thick and adhesive liquid.
- the sometimes fringed lip is adnate to ( = united with) the column (forming a nectary tube (but rarely producing nectar), continuing through the pedicel). The genus Prosthechea was split off because the lip is not completely adnate to the apex of the column.
- the pollinarium contains four pollinia (with sometimes two very reduced pollinia), rarely only two pollinia.
- the erect, pendent, or creeping stems are reed-like, simple or branching, or may be pseudobulbs or thickened stems. (The genus Coilostylis, recently split off from Epidendrum, has pseudobulbs, as does Prosthechea.)
Read more about this topic: Epidendrum