Species
+

Epidendrum secundum Jacq.

Lopsided Star Orchid, thicket star orchid

Climate known 58 photographs Orchid
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Epidendrum secundum, one of the crucifix orchids, known as the lopsided star orchid, is a poorly understood reed stemmed species, which Dressler (1989) describes as "the Epidendrum secundum complex." According to Dressler, there are dozens of varieties, some of which appear to deserve species rank. Arditti and Ghani note that E. secundum has the distinction of bearing the longest seeds known in the Orchidaceae, 6.0 mm long. By comparison, the seeds of E. ibaguense are only 2.9 mm long.

Text from Wikipedia, “Epidendrum secundum”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

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.

Text from Wikipedia, “Epidendrum”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Orchidaceae
Described by
Jacq.
Native to
Leeward Is. AB Ant, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles +4
Wild records
98 in range· 64 open

At a glance

Warmest month
24°C
Sep, mean day; nights 16 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
2175mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Oct 250 mm (CHELSA)
Light
28–34DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a orchid by the genus Epidendrum, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, April to October at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (1.6 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred. Habitat rain 2175 mm a year, wettest October at 250 mm, driest January at 82 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 34 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 13.3 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Amphiglottis lacera (Lindl.) Britton; Amphiglottis secunda (Jacq.) Britton; Amphiglottis secunda (Jacq.) Salisb.; Epidendrum ansiferum Rchb.f. & Warsz.; Epidendrum antioquiense Schltr. and 26 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a orchid by the genus Epidendrum, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table supplies one figure for this group, a conventional minimum for the cold floor, and no prose.

Its year Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, April to October at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (1.6 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred.

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the year's rain (1569 mm of 2175 mm) falls in April to October. The temperature curve is flat, 1.6 °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, within 10° of the equator; with no thermal season there there is no season to reverse, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: 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 gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 2175 mm a year, wettest October at 250 mm, driest January at 82 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

2175 mm a year at the habitat, 1569 mm of it April to October. Wettest month October at 250 mm, driest January at 82 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1447 mm to 4456 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 34 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 34 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 21, the highest 90th-percentile month 42).

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.

Warmth and air Cold floor 13.3 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 13.3 °C, the absolute minimum 11.3 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 29.9 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 14.9 °C in January (across the envelope cells 7.5 °C to 22.8 °C), warmest day 23.9 °C in September (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 13.3 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER); the archetype table's minimum for a orchid, 13 °C, is lower and does not raise it.

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence, and the archetype table's group minimum where that is higher. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 65 to 70% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 23 °C in Dec to 24 °C in Sep; mean night from 15 °C in Jan to 16 °C in May. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 2175 mm of rain a year, most in Oct. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 82 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 11.3 °C and the 99th-percentile day 29.9 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°29.9° 99th-percentile day (undated)11.3° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0200400600800mm rainDLI 28–34RH 65–70 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 82 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C23 / 17–2923 / 17–2923 / 17–2923 / 17–2923 / 16–2823 / 16–2823 / 16–2823 / 16–2924 / 17–2924 / 16–3023 / 16–2923 / 16–29
Night °C15 / 8–2315 / 8–2315 / 9–2316 / 9–2316 / 9–2416 / 9–2416 / 8–2416 / 8–2416 / 8–2416 / 8–2416 / 8–2415 / 8–23
Rain mm82 / 34–15090 / 35–174106 / 23–242209 / 80–393240 / 119–560213 / 101–642224 / 95–602220 / 113–537213 / 132–403250 / 139–387199 / 125–306129 / 62–196
DLI33 / 28–3534 / 30–3834 / 29–4131 / 24–4228 / 21–4028 / 22–3730 / 24–3732 / 27–3834 / 29–3733 / 27–3530 / 26–3330 / 27–33
RH %65 / 59–7265 / 60–7166 / 60–7268 / 63–7469 / 64–7570 / 63–7670 / 63–7670 / 62–7468 / 61–7368 / 63–7369 / 65–7367 / 62–73

Each figure is the median across the 82 grid cells holding the 95 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1696:2395 (5.175, -60.225). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 11.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 13.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 29.9 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 82 distinct grid cells holding the 95 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1696:2395 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 5.00_-60.000, lapse-corrected +487 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1331 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeLeeward Is. AB Ant, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is., French Guiana, Guyana, Venezuela
Kew's description“perennial or epiphyte” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker7.056, -73.113 · in the densest population, 32 records (33% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 98 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 64 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 51 km away. 1230 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 3 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 98 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Epidendrum secundumEpidendrum secundumEpidendrum secundumEpidendrum secundumEpidendrum secundumEpidendrum secundumEpidendrum secundumEpidendrum secundum

Photographs: (c) Pedro Alvaro Neves, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); no rights reserved · CC0 (4); (c) william_hoyer, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Epidendrum secundum, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Anatomy and photosynthetic parameters of roots and leaves of two shade-adapted orchids, Dichaea cogniauxiana Shltr. and Epidendrum secundum Jacq.
Ana Sílvia Franco Pinheiro Moreira, José Pires de Lemos Filho, Gerhard Zotz, Rosy Mary dos Santos Isaías (2009) · Flora
Structural adaptations of two sympatric epiphytic orchids (Orchidaceae) to a cloudy forest environment in rocky outcrops of Southeast Brazil
A.S. Pinheiro, José Pires de Lemos Filho, Rosy Mary dos Santos Isaías (2013) · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals)
Karyology of the genusEpidendrum(Orchidaceae: Laeliinae) with emphasis on subgenusAmphiglottiumand chromosome number variability inEpidendrum secundum
Felipe Nollet Medeiros de Assis, Bruno César Querino de Souza, Enoque Medeiros Neto, Fábio Pinheiro (2013) · Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society
The micorryzal fungi Ceratobasidium sp. and Sebacina vermifera promote seed germination and seedling development of the terrestrial orchid Epidendrum secundum Jacq
María Elisa Durán López, Rodrigo Caroca‐Cáceres, Knut Jahreis, Mónica Alexandra Narváez-Vera (2019) · South African Journal of Botany
Estratégias anatômicas foliares de treze espécies de Orchidaceae ocorrentes em um campo de altitude no Parque Estadual da Serra do Brigadeiro (PESB): MG, Brasil
Ivone Vieira da Silva, Renata Maria Strozi Alves Meira, Aristéa Alves Azevedo, Rosane Maria de Aguiar Euclydes (2006) · Acta Botanica Brasilica
Morphometric analysis of Epidendrum secundum (Orchidaceae) in southeastern Brazil
Fábio Pinheiro, Fábio de Barros (2007) · Nordic Journal of Botany
Root anatomy of nine orchidaceae species
Virginia del Carmem Oliveira, Maria das Graças Sajo (1999) · Brazilian Archives of Biology and Technology
Strong but permeable barriers to gene exchange between sister species of Epidendrum
Fábio Pinheiro, Tiago Manuel Zanfra de Melo e Gouveia, Salvatore Cozzolino, Donata Cafasso (2016) · American Journal of Botany
Adaptaciones estructurales de dos orquídeas epífitas simpátricas (Orchidaceae) en un bosque nuboso de un campo rupestre del sureste de Brasil
Ana Sílvia Franco Pinheiro Moreira, José Pires de Lemos Filho, Rosy Mary dos Santos Isaías (2013) · Revista de Biología Tropical
Diversidade de fungos micorrízicos Epulorhiza spp. isolados de Epidendrum secundum (Orchidaceae)
Marlon Corrêa Pereira, Olinto Liparini Pereira, Maurício Dutra Costa, Rodrigo Barros Rocha (2009) · Revista Brasileira de Ciência do Solo
Morphological and molecular characterization of Tulasnella spp. fungi isolated from the roots of Epidendrum secundum, a widespread Brazilian orchid
Marlon Corrêa Pereira, Irene da Silva Coelho, Rafael Borges da Silva Valadares, Sabrina Feliciano Oliveira (2014) · Symbiosis

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Epidendrum 1 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 165 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.