Epidendrum parvilabre is a sympodial

Sympodial

Sympodial means "with conjoined feet", and in biology is often used to refer to the outward morphology or mode of growth of organisms.-In botany:...

 terrestrial orchid native to the mountainous (~2 km) tropical rainforests of Ecuador

Ecuador

Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...

 and Piura

Piura Region

Piura is a coastal region in northwestern Peru. The region's capital is Piura and its largest port cities, Paita and Talara, are also among the most important in Peru...

, Peru

Peru

Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....

.

Description

The sympodial stems of E. parvilabre are so thick that Reichenbach described them as pseudobulbs, although Dodson & Bennett 1969 did not follow suit, noting only that the stems are unifoliate. The oblong suboblique emarginate leathery leaves are longer than the stems. The densely-flowered racemose

Raceme

A raceme is a type of inflorescence that is unbranched and indeterminate and bears pedicellate flowers — flowers having short floral stalks called pedicels — along the axis. In botany, axis means a shoot, in this case one bearing the flowers. In a raceme, the oldest flowers are borne...

 inflorescence erupts from a double or triple spathe at the apex of the pseudobulb, similar to the subgenus E. subg. Spathium

Epidendrum subg. Spathium

John Lindley published Epidendrum subg. Spathium of the Orchidaceae. According to Lindley's diagnosis,, the E. subg. Spathium is recognizable by is sympodial habit with individual stems being slender and covered by the bases of the distichous leaves, by the lip of the flower being...

. The flower bracts are small and acute. The flowers are a little more than 1 cm across, with green sepals and petals, and a white lip

Labellum

Labellum is the Latin diminutive of labium, meaning lip. These are anatomical terms used descriptively in biology, for example in Entomology and botany.-Botany:...

 with purple spots. The sepals are oblong-obtuse, 1 cm long, and 3–4 mm wide; the falcate revolute lateral sepals are slightly shorter and wider than the plicate dorsal sepal. The linear petals are much narrower than the sepals. The deeply trilobate lip is adnate

Adnation

Adnation in plants is the "union of unlike parts; organically united or fused with another dissimilar part, e.g. an ovary to a calyx tube, or stamens to petals". This is in contrast to connation, the fusion of similar organs....

 to the column

Column (botany)

The column, or technically the gynostemium, is a reproductive structure that can be found in several plant families: Aristolochiaceae, Orchidaceae, and Stylidiaceae....

to its apex. The lateral lobes of the lip are falcate and very acute. The very narrow medial lobe of the lip is cuneate and trilobed at its apex.