Thursday, June 14, 2012

Scaphosepalum merinoi

This is another unusual species from Ecuador.  The Scaphosepalums all have these "horned" flowers, though in some cases the appendages are not as long as in this species.  The plant itself has Masdevallia-like leaves and growth, approximately 8 cm tall, but the flower spikes are very long compared to the plant, 20 cm, and they continue to lengthen as the flowers are produced one after another, six or more per spike.  The flowers are 6 cm from tip to tip, rather large for the genus.  The plant is supposed to be warmth tolerant, but I grow it cool.  It is best grown mounted because of its long spikes






4 comments:

  1. Orquidea maravilhosa, imagens nem se fala.
    parabéns pelo blog
    abraços

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for the comment, my friend. It is indeed a marvelous species and one of my favorites for its oddness.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Just received one of these! :) I hope it takes to my intermediate environment. I assume these need to be continually moist like many Pleurothallids?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks for visiting. Mine is mounted on a piece of cedar with a little moss and does not stay very wet, but my humidity is constantly in the 75-80% range

    ReplyDelete