Scaphosepalum cimex Luer & Hirtz 1988 SECTION Leiocaulium Luer 1988
Photo by © Lourens Grobler
Photo by © Ecuagenera and their Ecuador species orchid site
TYPE Drawing by Carl Luer
Common NameThe Bug-Like Scaphosepalum [refers to the flowers shape]
Flower Size 1" [2.5 cm]
Found in Ecuador in excessively wet lowland forests at elevations around 1250 meters in wet forests as a mini-miniature sized, cool growing epiphyte with erect, slender ramicauls enveloped basally by 2 to 3 loose, tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, acute, cuneate belwo into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the winter on a slender, smooth, to 5" [to 12.5 cm] long, ascending to horizontal or pendant, loose, successively several flowered inflorescence arising from low on the ramicaul with thin acuminate floral bracts.
"Distinguished by the narrow foliage and small flowers with very narrow diverging cushions of the lateral sepals. The hairlike tails diverge, resembling antennae of an insct." Luer 1988
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; *Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol V Systematics of Dresslerella and Scaphosepalum Luer 1988 drawing fide; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 5 Dodson 2004 drawing fide
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