Epidendrum - Distribution and Ecology

Distribution and Ecology

They are native to the tropics and subtropical regions of the American continents, from South Carolina to Argentina. Their habitat can be is epiphytic, terrestrial (such as E. fulgens), or even lithophytic (growing on bare rock, such as E. calanthm and E. saxatile). Many are grow in the Andes, at altitudes between 1,000 and 3,000 m. Their habitats include humid jungles, dry tropical forests, sunny grassy slopes, cool cloud forests, and sandy barrier islands.

Members of this genus can be very aggressive colonizers of disturbed habitat, and many species which were once rare in this genus have become more common as the result of human activities. For example, some of these plants can be found in greater abundance growing terrestrially along road cuts throughout their native ranges as the result of road construction.

Many of these species are relatively easy to grow in rich humus compost with some sand. The plants resemble Dendrobiums in form and habit typically, although they tend to be terrestrial rather than lithophytic and epiphytic, and do better in a humus rich, well aerated substrate.

Most of the high altitude members of this genus from cloud forests defy cultivation outside their habitat, and it is reported that even moving a plant from one location to another on the same host tree in habitat will result in the death of the plant, possibly due to dependency on a specific mychorhizzial fungal symbiot.