Epidendrum radicans
Epidendrum radicans is a species of orchid. Common names include ground-rooting epidendrum, fire-star orchid, rainbow orchid, and reed-stem epidendrum. It is a common roadside weed at middle elevations in Central America. It is a crucifix orchid, often confused with many other members of the section "Schistochila", including "E. calanthe", "E. cinnabarinum", "E. denticulatum", "E. erectum", "E. fulgens", "E. ibaguense", "E. imatophyllum", "E. incisum", "E. schomburgkii", "E. secundum", and "E. xanthinum", among others. The diagnostic characteristic of "E. radicans" is its tendency to sprout roots all along the length of the stem; other crucifix orchids only  produce roots near the base. Additionally, "E. radicans" flowers are resupinate, unlike the members of the "Epidendrum secundum" complex, "E. fulgens", and many other crucifix orchids. "E. radicans" also differs from "E. secundum" by bearing no nectar in the flower. Description. "E. radicans", like other members of subgenus "Amphiglottium", is a sympodial orchid which grows stems which do not swell into pseudobulbs and are covered with imbricating sheaths, produces a terminal inflorescence covered at its base by close imbricating sheaths, and produces a lip adnate to the column to its apex. The lip of "E. radicans" is trilobate, as with  the other members of section "Schistochila", with the lacerate lobes which are typical of the subsections "Carinata" and "Tuberculata". "E. radicans" differs from the other lacerate "Schistochila" by producing roots from most of the stem. "E. radicans" seeds are quite small, at 320 seeds per milligram. The chromosome number of an individual collected in Ecuador has been determined as 2n = 60. Other reported chromosome numbers for "E. radicans" include 2n = 40, 2n = 57, 2n = 62, and 2n = 64 Taxonomic placement. A biochemical examination (Pinheiro & al., 2009) of the lacerate "Schistochila" subsections encompassing plastid nucleotide sequence  data from the "trn"L—"trn"F 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", including "E. radicans", has suggested that perhaps "E." subsect. "Carinata" should be replaced with three subsections: an "Atlantic" subsection, an "Andean" subsection, and a monotypic subsection for "E. radicans". Ecology. "E. radicans" is part of a complex of several orange-flowered, weedy species (including "Asclepias spp".) that are unrelated but ecologically similar. Species within this group share  pollinators as well as habitat, and are believed to exhibit what is known as convergent evolution, where unrelated species "converge" upon similar physical characteristics as a result of similar evolutionary pressures. Paulette Bierzychudek studied pollinator behavior in the apparent complex consisting of "E. radicans", "Asclepias curassavica", and "Lantana camara", but could not find clear evidence that floral mimicry was affecting pollination rates for any of the three species.