Orchidaceae — Earth’s Most Beautiful Orchids

Epidendrum radicans -- fire star orchid

Epidendrum radicans — fire star orchid

Epidendrum radicans is a species of orchid, commonly known as the fire-star orchid. It is a common roadside weed at middle elevations in Central America. It is a crucifix orchid, often confused with many other members of the section.

The diagnostic characteristic of Epidendrum radicans is its tendency to sprout roots all along the length of the stem; other crucifix orchids only produce roots near the base.

Additionally, E. radicans flowers are resupinate, unlike many other crucifix orchids. E. radicans also bears no nectar in the flower.

Epidendrum radicans, like other members of subgenus Amphiglottium, is a sympodial orchid which grows stems which do not swell into pseudobulbs and are covered with imbricating sheaths, produces a terminal inflorescence covered at its base by close imbricating sheaths, and produces a lip adnate to the column to its apex.

The lip of E. radicans is trilobate, as with the other members of section Schistochila, with the lacerate lobes which are typical of the subsections Carinata and Tuberculata. E. radicans differs from the other lacerate Schistochila by producing roots from most of the stem.

The Orchidaceae are a diverse and widespread family of flowering plants, with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant, commonly known as the orchid family.

Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowering plants. The Orchidaceae have about 28,000 currently accepted species, distributed in about 763 genera.

The determination of which family is larger is still under debate, because verified data on the members of such enormous families are continually in flux. Regardless, the number of orchid species is nearly equal to the number of bony fishes, more than twice the number of bird species, and about four times the number of mammal species.

The family encompasses about 6–11% of all seed plants.

The largest genera are Bulbophyllum (2,000 species), Epidendrum (1,500 species), Dendrobium (1,400 species) and Pleurothallis (1,000 species). It also includes Vanilla (the genus of the vanilla plant), the type genus Orchis, and many commonly cultivated plants such as Phalaenopsis and Cattleya.

Moreover, since the introduction of tropical species into cultivation in the 19th century, horticulturists have produced more than 100,000 hybrids and cultivars.