Orchid Borealis

I purchased this plant as Lepanthes pilosella ( Neooreophilus pilosellum ) from Orquídeas del Valle .  But it turned out to be Lepanthes platysepala, instead.   L. platysepala was originally described by Luer and Escobar in 1994 ( link to the original illustration , Luer 1994). It belongs to subgenus  Brachycladium  which contains about 38 species (Archila and Higgins 2008).  The subgenus is characterized by the pendulous growth habit, short ramicaulis, and petals not lobed.  In the past, this subgenus was proposed to be separated to genus Brachycladium (Luer 2005),  Oreophilus (Archila and Higgins 2008) or Neooreophilus . This species is frequently confused with L. pilosella , and the original description (Luer 1994,  link ) mentioned the differences between the two species: L. pilosella : concave, stripped dorsal sepal, L. platysepala : flatter and more open dorsal sepal with dots.  It is interesting that in some photos of L. pilosella , the lip enclosing the column is more

Epidendrum is a large genus with amazing diveristy.   Epidendrum schizoclinandrium is in Nanodes group ( link to IOSPE ), which contains another cool-looking species,  E.  medusa .  Some of the related species look somewhat similar, and Parsons and Gerritsen (2013, p. 466-469) listed 10 similar species and their geographic distributions: E. gonzalez-tamayoi (Mexico), E. serruliferum (Costa Rica, Central Panama), E. congestum (Costa Rica, Honduras), E. congestoides (Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica),   E. schlechterianum (Panama), E. oxynanodes (Colombia), E. uleinanodes (N. Brazil, Ecuador), E. longirepens  (Peru), E. schizoclinandrium (Peru), and E. neodiscolor (Brazil).   Some of them are warm growers and others are cool growers.  I haven't looked into the differences between them, but my plant seems to resemble  E. schizoclinandrium from casual comparison with the photos. The type specimen of E. schizoclinandrium  was collected in Peru,  Pasco Region