Epidendrum alpicola is a tropical orchid native to Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru,[2] and Venezuela at altitudes from 1.8—2.7 km.

[3] Epidendrum alpicola is a sympodial epiphyte with slender, flattened stems, to 60 cm tall.

[4] The cylindrical, racemose, many-flowered inflorescence erupts from a solitary spathe (sometimes twin spathes) at the apex of the stem, as is typical of the subgenus E. subg. Spathium.

[5] The lanceolate-acuminate sepals are wedge shaped at the base: the dorsal 7–12 mm long by as little as 2 mm wide; the lateral sepals slightly larger and asymmetrical at the base.

The trilobate lip is adnate to the column to its apex: cordate at the base, with minute crenelations on the lateral lobes, two callosities at the base, and three or more shallow keels running down the midlobe from near the column apex.