Scaphosepalum decorum Luer & R. Escobar 1982 SECTION Distichium Luer 1988
Photo by © Jay Pfahl
Photo by © Eric Hunt
TYPE Drawing by Carl Luer
Common Name The Graceful Scaphosepalum
Flower Size 2.5" {5.5 cm]
Found in Cauca department of southern Colombia in cloud forests at elevations around 1800 meters as a small sized, caespitose, cool growing epiphyte with an erect, slender ramicaul with 1 to 2 basal tubular sheaths and a larger one above carrying a single, apical, erect, thinly coriaceous, long-petiolate, elliptical, acute leaf that is cuneate below to the conduplicate petiole that blooms in the fall from high on the ramicaul, on an erect, racemose, subcongested, distichous, successively many flowered, to 16" [to 40 cm] long inflorescence with several conspicuos, oblong triangular, oblique, conduplicate floral bracts with large flowers held at mid-leaf.
"Chaacterized by the large, petiolate leaves and long racemes emerging from high on the well developed ramicaul. The large yellow flowers are doitted with red. The large-bracted, distichous racemes are similar to those of Scaphosepalum grande but the ramicauls of it are markedly shorter with the inflorescence emerging from near the base." Luer 1988
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; *Orquideologia Vol 15 #2-3 1982 drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Systematics of Dresslerella And Scaphosepalum Vol 5 1988 drawing fide; Native Colombian Orchids Vol 4 COS 1992 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 64 No 3 1995 photo fide; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 5 Dodson 2004 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 81 #11 2012 photo fide
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
