Scaphosepalum anchoriferum (Rchb. f.) Rolfe 1890 SECTION Leiocaulium Luer 1988
Photos by Charles E. Lamb
Photo by © Eric Hunt
Comparison between the Costa Rican and Ecuadorian clones
Photos by Charles E. Lamb
Drawing by © Carl Luer
Common Name The Anchor-Bearing Scaphosepalum [refers to the appearance of the recurved tails of the connate sepals]
Flower Size 3/8" [1 cm]
Found in Costa Rica, Panama and Ecuador in premontane and lower montane rainforests at elevations of 1100 to 2000 meters as a small sized, cool growing epiphyte with erect to suberect ramicauls enveloped basally by 2 to 3 tubular sheaths carrying a single, apical, erect, thinly coriaceous, elliptical, acute leaf that gradually narrows into the slender, channeled petiole and blooms in the spring summer and fall on a slender, smooth, ascending to horizontal to descending, 6" [15 cm] long, congesteed, successively several flowered inflorescencearising from low on the ramicaul with thin floral bracts.
"Identified by the smooth peduncle, purple spotted flowers with large triangular, velvety cushions half the size of the blade and usually extending beyond the margins of the blade, short, slender, decurved sepaline tails, ovate, ventricose, acute, shortly acuminate petals and a deflexd lip dilated in the middle third." Luer 1988
Synonyms *Masdevallia anchorifera Rchb. f. 1884; Masdevallia punctata Rolfe 1888; Scaphosepalum endresianum Kraenzl. 1921; Scaphosepalum naviculare Kraenzl. 1921; Scaphosepalum punctatum (Rolfe) Rolfe 1890;
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Lankester's Epidendra Website CR; * Gard. Chron., n.s., 21(540): 577. Rchb.f 1884 as Masdevallia anchoriferum; Die Orchideen Schlechter 1915; Die Orchideen Schlechter 1915 as S punctatum; Atlas des Orchidees Cultivees Constantin 1920 as Masdevallia punctata drawing fide; Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 17(28): 435. 1921 as Scaphosepalum endresianum; Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 17(28): 436. 1921 as S naviculare; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965; 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; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 1580 Atwood 1993 drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 64 No 3 1995 photo; Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica Vol 3 Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003; Orchid Genera and Species in Guatemala Archila, Szlachchetko, Chiron, Lipinska, Mystkowska and Bertolini 2018; Lankesteriana 19(1). 31 - 55 2019 photo fide; Lankesteriana 19[3] 271–279. Baquero 2019 photo fide
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
