Scaphosepalum luanneae Baquero 2019 SECTION Leiocaulium Luer 1988

Flower in situ Ecuador

Comparrison photo between S cimex, S luanneae and S swertifolium

TYPE Photos by © Luis Baquero

Full Shade Cool fall

Common Name Luanne’s Scaphosepalum [Luanne Lemmer, American orchid conservationsits with the Rainforest Trust and Eco Minga, current]

Flower Size .75” [1.8 cm]

Found in Carchi province of Ecuador in moist cloud forests at elevations of 1750 to 1850 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cool , densely caespitose epiphyte with erect, slender ramicauls enveloped by 3 sheaths and carrying a single, apical, elliptic, acute, suberect, thinly coriaceous,dark green adaxially, glaucose green abaxially, conspicuously shiny-reflective on both sides, markedly veined on the adaxial side, cuneate below into the slender, channeled, petiolate base leaf that blooms in the fall on a horizontal, peduncle 1 to 1.6” [2.5 to 4 cm] long, slender, glabrous, rachis racemose, loose, flexuous, successively single, several to many flowered inflorescence with thin, shorter than the pedicel, conduplicate, acumiante, bristle pointed floral bracts.

"Scaphosepalum luannae is similar to S. swertiifolium but it differs in the smaller 2.8 to 4” vs 3.2 to 8.4” (7–10 vs. 8–21 cm long), dark green, reflective leaves (vs. light green, non-reflective) conspicuously nerved at the abaxial surface (vs. not conspicuously nerved); the shorter ramicauls 1.4 to 2” vs 1.6 to 4” (3.5–5.0 vs 4–10 cm long); the well-developed, subquadrate, reflexed osmophores of the lateral sepals (vs. transversely lunate, markedly divergent); the sub-quadrate petals with a callous lobe at the base of the columnar margin (vs. ovate, oblique, ecallose), the lip truncate at the base, elobulate (vs. provided wit minutely auricles); and the flat and oblong hipochile (vs. shallowly concave, more or less oblong in S. swertiifolium).” Luis Baquero 2019

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Lankesteriana 19[3] 271–279. Baquero 2019 photo/drawing fide

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------