Scaphosepalum swertiifolium (Rchb.f.) Rolfe 1890 SUBSPECIES swertifolium SECTION Leiocaulium Luer 1988
Photo by Jay Pfahl.
Photo by Lourens Grobler
Photo by Patricia Harding.
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Common Name The Swertia perennis-Like Scaphoswepalum [Refers to the leaves looking like the species Swertia perennis]
Flower Size 2 3/4" [7 cm]
Found in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru in extremely wet montane cloud forests as a miniature sized, warm to cold growing epiphytic species found at an altitude of 600-2200 meters with erect, slender ramicauls enveloped by 2 to 3 tubular sheaths carrying a single, apical, erect, thinly coriaceous, long-petiolate, ellipical, acute, subplicate leaf that gradually narrows below to the slender, channeled petiole and blooms in the summer, fall, winter and spring on a ascending to horizontal, smooth, loose to congested, lateral, 2 to 6" [5 to 15 cm] long, racemose, few flowered inflorescence arising from low on the ramicaul with thin tubular floral bracts and the successively opening flowers are held below the leaves.
Synonyms *Masdevallia swertiifolia Rchb. f. 1880; Scaphosepalum platypetalum Schltr. 1920
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
Die Orchideen Schlechter 1915; Atlas des Orchidees Cultivees Constantin 1920 drawing ok; Die Orchideen der Sudamerikanischen Kordillerenstaaten II Colombia Schlechter 1920 as S platypetalum; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 284 Dodson 1980 drawing ok; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol V Systematics of Dresslerella and Scaphosepalum Luer 1988 drawing fide; Orchids from The Coast Of Ecuador Arosemana, Jurado, Estrada and Konanz 1988 photo ok; Orchids Travel By Air A Pictoral Safari Mulder, Mulder-Roelfsema and Schuiteman 1990 photo fide;
Native Colombian Orchids Vol 4 COS 1992 photo soso; AOS Bulletin Vol 64 No 3 1995; Native Colombian Orchids Vol 6 COS 1998 photo fide; Rudolf Schlechter Die Orchideen Band 1C lieferung 42 - 43 pg 2626 - 2762 Brieger 2001; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 5 Dodson 2004 photo fide; Orchid Species Of Peru Zelenko & Bermudez 2009 photo fide; Orquideologia Vol 28 #2 2011 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 81 #11 2012 photo fide; Orquideas de Farallones de Cali Galindo-Tarazona, Haelterman, Zuluaga Trochez and Sebastian Moreno 2020 photo fide
Scaphosepalum swertiifolium subsp. exiguum Luer & R. Escobar 1988
Photo courtesy of Patricia Harding.
A color and shape variant. W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; AOS Bulletin Vol 81 #11 2012 photo fide;
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