!Sauroglossum nitidum (Vell.) Schltr. 1920 Photo courtesy of Dalton Holland Baptista

Plant in situ, La Caraça, Minas Gerais 1100 meters Photo by Jay Pfahl

Plant in situ, La Caraça, Minas Gerais 1100 meters Photo by Jay Pfahl

Common Name The Shimmering Sauroglossum

Flower Size .2" [5 mm]

Found in Minas Gerais, Brasil at elevations around 1200 to 2400 meters as a small to medium sized, warm to cool growing terrestrial found in leaf litter under bushes and trees with a short stem carrying 2 to 3, elliptic, acute, narrowing below into the elongate petiolate base leaf in a basal rosette that blooms at most any time of the year on an erect, to 2' [to 60 cm] long, loose, inflorescence with a few flowers.

Synonyms Cyclopogon procerus Regnell ex Barb.Rodr. 1881; Sauroglossum elatum Lindl. 1830; *Serapias nitida described by Velloso (Vellozo) bet.1827-1835; Spiranthes excelsa Kraenzl. 1911; Spiranthes nitida (Vell.) Cogn. 1895; Spiranthes pachychila Kraenzl. 1911; Spiranthes sauroglossum G.Nicholson 1886

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Orchids of the High Mountain Atlantic Rainforest in SE Brazil Warren & Miller 1994; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Series II Plate 578 Dodson 1989; Native Colombian Orchids Vol 6 COS 1998 as S elatum; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 5 Dodson 2004 as S elatum

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