Scaphosepalum ovulare Luer 1976 SECTION Leiocaulium Luer 1988
Photo by © Milan Vágner
TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer
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Common Name The Egg-Like Scaphosepalum [Refers to the flower shape]
Flower Size .2" [5 mm]
Found in Napo province of Ecuador at elevations of 600 to 1200 meters as a mini-miniature sized, warm to cool growing epiphyte to terrestrial with, erect, slender ramicauls enveloped by 2 to 3 tubular sheaths carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, acute leaf that is cuneate to the slender, long petiole that can bloom at any time of the year on a low on the ramicaul, ascending to descending, congested, distichous, .75 to 1.5" [2 to 4 cm] long, successively few flowered, racemose inflorescence with small, thin floral bracts.
"Vegetatively Scaphosepalum ovulare is very small for the genus. Solitary, little, red-brown, egg-shaped flowers are produced in a slow succession on a hair-like peduncle that descends from the base of a cluster of very small petiolate leaves. The concave sepals, connate to near the middle to form the ovoid flower, are devoid of caudicles, but a minute apiculum persists at each obtuse apex. The "cushion" of the lateral sepals, the hallmark of the Scaphosepalums, is well developed and verrucose." Luer 1976
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Selbyana Vol 3 34 Luer 1976 Drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol V Systematics of Dresslerella and Scaphosepalum Luer 1988 drawing fide; Orchids Travel By Air A Pictoral Safari Mulder, Mulder-Roelfsema and Schuiteman 1990 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 64 No 3 1995 photo fide; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 5 Dodson 2004 drawing photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 81 #11 2012 photo fide
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