!Sauroglossum elatum Lindl. 1833 Photo by © The Orchideen Bilder Society of Germany

Inflorescence Photo by © Patricia Harding

Common Name The Beautiful Sauroglossum

Flower Size

Found in Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil and Argentina at elevations of 2300 to 2400 meters as a robust, medium sized, cold growing terrestrial with basal, erect, oblong-lanceolate to oblong-spatulate, acute leaves that blooms at most any time of the year on an erect, enveloped by sheaths below, [12 to 32" [30 to 80 cm] long, rachis 6 to 16" [15 to 40 cm] long, many flowered inflorescnece.

CAUTION Often sited as a synonym of S nitidum and may be but current thinking separates them thereby keeping this species as the type for the genus. The obvious differences are in this species having less leaves with a pseudo-petiolate base, more herbaceous in texture, clearer green and with thicker nerves on the underside, the flowers differ in less dense in the inflorescence, being green and white, the lip margin more ruffled, and the dorsal sepal being longer.

Synonyms Cyclopogon procerus Regnell ex Barb.Rodr. 1881; Sauroglossum nitidum var. andinum Hauman 1920; Spiranthes excelsa Kraenzl. 1911; Spiranthes pachychila Kraenzl. 1911; Spiranthes sauroglossum G.Nicholson 1886

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Flora Brasilica Vol XII II Hoehne 1945; Flora Brasilica Vol XII II Illustrations Hoehne 1945 drawing fide; Flora Brasilica Vol XII II Illustrations Hoehne 1945 as S nitida drawing not = S elatum fide; Icongoraphia de Orchidaceae do Brasil Hoehne 1949 as S nitida drawing not = S elatum drawing fide; Icongoraphia de Orchidaceae do Brasil Hoehne 1949 drawing fide; Rudolf Schlechter Die Orchideen 3 Auflage Bd 1 Sonderabdruck aus Schlechter Lieferung 6 321 - 384 Brieger, Maatsch and Senghas 1975 photo fide; Orchidaceae Brasilense Band 1 Pabst & Dungs 1975 as S nitidum drawing fide; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Series II Plate 578 Dodson 1989 drawing hmm; Native Colombian Orchids Vol 6 COS 1998 drawing fide ;Rudolf Schlechter Die Orchideen Band 1C lieferung 40 pg 2492 - 2564 Brieger 2000; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 5 Dodson 2004 drawing/photo can't tell?; AOS Bulletin Vol 86 #4 2017 photo ok;

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