| Epidendrum sect. Schistochila | |
|---|---|
| the trilobate lip of Epidendrum denticulatum | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| (unranked): | Angiosperms |
| (unranked): | Monocots |
| Order: | Asparagales |
| Family: | Orchidaceae |
| Subfamily: | Epidendroideae |
| Tribe: | Epidendreae |
| Subtribe: | Laeliinae |
| Genus: | Epidendrum |
| Subgenus: | E. subg. Amphiglottium |
| Section: | E. sect. Schistochila Rchb.f. |
Epidendrum sect. Schistochila Rchb.f. (1861) is a section of the subgenus E. subg. Amphiglottium Lindl. (1841)[1] of the Genus Epidendrum of the Orchidaceae. E. sect. Schistochila differs from the section E. sect. Holochila in that the species in E. sect. Holochila have undivided lips; the species in E. sect. Schistochila have lobate lips. The species in both E. sect. Schistochila and E. sect. Holochila have racemose inflorescences, unlike those in E. sect. Polycladia (the other section of E. subg. Amphiglottium), which have truly paniculate inflorescences.[2] Like the other sections of E. subg. Amphiglottium, the members of E. sect. Schistochila are sympodial orchids bearing thin stems with alternate leaves (not pseudobulbs), a long peduncle covered with thin, imbricating sheathes, and a lip adnate to the very end of the column.
Reichenbach, 1861, described three subsections of Epidendrum sect. Schistochila:
A biochemical examination of the lacerate subsections encompassing plastid nucleotide sequence data from the trnL—trnF regions, Amplified Fragment Length Polyorphism (AFLP) data, and somatic chromosome number for 30 individuals in three of the thirteen recognized species of E. subsect. Tuberculata and twenty individuals in eleven of the twelve recognized species of E. subsect. Carinata suggested the following conclusions:[3]