21 photographs › At a glance
- Jan
- Feb
- Mar
- Apr
- May, shaded
- Jun, shaded
- Jul, shaded
- Aug, shaded
- Sep, shaded
- Oct, shaded
- Nov, shaded
- Dec
Summary
Epidendrum anceps, literally the "two-edged upon a tree," a species of epiphytic orchid in the genus Epidendrum, is sometimes known as the brown epidendrum or dingy-flowered epidendrum.
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Epidendrum anceps", CC BY-SA 4.0.
About the genus · Epidendrum
Epidendrum, abbreviated Epi in the horticultural trade, is a large neotropical genus of the orchid family. With more than 1,500 species, some authors describe it as a mega-genus. The genus name refers to its epiphytic growth habit.
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Epidendrum", CC BY-SA 4.0.
Cultivation
Grouped as an orchid, listed under the genus Epidendrum in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “epiphyte”.
Seasons
The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,267 mm of 1,736 mm) falls in May to November. The temperature curve is flat, 2.9 °C between the warmest and coldest month, so the growing-season rule does not infer a growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere. The temperature curve moves under 4 °C between the warmest and coldest month, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.
Rain
1,736 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,267 mm of it May to November. Wettest month October at 223 mm, driest month February at 67 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,222 mm to 2,335 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,760 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,736 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.
Light
Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 43 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 28, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).
Warmth and air
Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 22.3 °C in February (across the grid cells of the range 17.6 °C to 23.7 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 27.6 °C in August and September (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is 22.3 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, February, in the median year (CHELSA); a month's mean of its nightly lows is warmer than the nights a floor is read from. The daily extremes were read at a weather cell that is mostly sea and are not used.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 63 to 68% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.
How this section is made
Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.
Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.
Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.
Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.
Temperature. CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. No cold floor is read without a daily extremes series; the coldest month's mean nightly low named in its sentence is not one. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.
Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.
Group. Listed under the genus Epidendrum in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “epiphyte”. A group is taken only where Kew's description of the species agrees with the table's listing. The table gives no figure and no prose; the cold floor is the habitat's alone.
Climate across the habitat
Habitat months, northern hemisphere
Mean daily high from 25 °C in Jan, Feb and Mar to 28 °C in Aug and Sep; mean nightly low from 22 °C in Feb to 25 °C in Aug and Sep. The cold quarter, Jan to Mar, is the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low. 1,736 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added), the wettest month Oct. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 34 habitat cells. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.
Figures by month
| Figure | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 25 / 23–27 | 25 / 23–27 | 25 / 23–28 | 26 / 24–28 | 27 / 25–29 | 27 / 25–29 | 27 / 25–30 | 28 / 26–30 | 28 / 25–29 | 27 / 25–29 | 26 / 24–28 | 26 / 23–27 |
| Night °C | 23 / 18–24 | 22 / 18–24 | 23 / 18–24 | 23 / 19–24 | 24 / 20–25 | 24 / 21–26 | 24 / 21–26 | 25 / 21–26 | 25 / 21–26 | 24 / 20–26 | 24 / 20–25 | 23 / 18–25 |
| Rain mm | 94 / 65–133 | 67 / 49–91 | 71 / 49–103 | 106 / 73–178 | 142 / 96–258 | 141 / 77–210 | 152 / 101–237 | 194 / 122–254 | 218 / 139–285 | 223 / 164–274 | 197 / 149–272 | 131 / 71–186 |
| DLI | 32 / 30–34 | 36 / 34–38 | 41 / 38–42 | 43 / 41–43 | 42 / 40–42 | 42 / 40–43 | 41 / 40–42 | 41 / 39–41 | 38 / 36–39 | 34 / 33–35 | 31 / 30–33 | 30 / 28–32 |
| RH % | 64 / 61–70 | 63 / 60–69 | 63 / 60–69 | 65 / 61–70 | 66 / 63–71 | 65 / 62–71 | 66 / 62–71 | 66 / 63–72 | 67 / 63–72 | 68 / 63–73 | 67 / 63–72 | 65 / 61–70 |
The daily extremes were read at a NASA POWER cell that is 24% land: neither it nor the next candidates whose coldest month's mean nightly low is within 2 °C of the median across cells sit in a POWER cell that is mostly land, and the rule reads a cold floor only from a cell that is mostly land, so none is read for this species. Nor is the coldest month's mean nightly low taken as one: it is a mean of a month's lows, not its coldest night. What that cell gave over 44 years: absolute minimum 20.5 °C, 1st-percentile night 21.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 28.2 °C.
How this section is made
Natural habitat
How this section is made
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Kurt Miller, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Emmett Serrano, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) J. L. Gómez-Hechavarría, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Mario Guzmán, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).
Related
Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.
Philodendron giganteum Giant philodendron Photo: CC0, author not stated
Ormosia monosperma Bastard Nickars Photo: CC BY, Kristof Zyskowski
Anthurium grandifolium Monkey Tail Photo: CC BY, novvictan
Oncidium altissimum Wydler's dancing-lady orchid Photo: CC BY, chrisdt
Pitcairnia angustifolia Clapper Photo: CC BY, Guillaume Delaitre
Pitcairnia spicata Bromeliaceae Photo: CC BY, Matteo BellucciOther Epidendrum 103 in the reference
Epidendrum amphistomum Big-mouth star orchid Photo: CC0, author not stated Epidendrum angustisegmentum Orchidaceae 
Epidendrum anisatum Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Carlos Domínguez-Rodríguez
Epidendrum arachnoglossum Spider-Tongue Orchid Photo: CC BY, Nicolás Baresch Uribe
Epidendrum atacazoicum Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Francisco Sánchez Karste
Epidendrum aura-usecheae Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Daniel Mesa
Epidendrum avicula Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, cristianol1456
Epidendrum blepharistes Funky Orchid Photo: CC0, author not stated Epidendrum brachyrhodochilum Orchidaceae 
Epidendrum calanthum Beautiful Blooming Epidendrum Photo: CC BY, Henrry
Epidendrum capricornu Orchidaceae Photo: CC0, author not stated
Epidendrum cardiophorum Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Daniel Acosta all 104 ›Names & registers
Also known as Amphiglottis anceps; Amphiglottis lurida; Epidendrum anceps var. typicum; Epidendrum anceps var. virescens; Epidendrum fuscatum and 3 more. (GBIF Backbone)
The record
Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →
Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 7 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (5 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 2 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)climate answeredasked 2026-10-22climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 15.50_-61.250, lapse-corrected +245 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: NASA POWER's cell is mostly sea (24% land), so no cold floor is shownwikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22inat.photos.cultivated not askedgbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22none of the photographs on this page is credited to GBIF: those shown are other sources', and GBIF's were the same photographs or were set aside by the photograph rulesopenalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshotEvery source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 59 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.