Scuticaria: Difference between revisions

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Endemic in another area of Amazon, separated but not that far from the habitat of ''Scuticaria steelei'', on southeastern [[Ecuador]], close to the place where the [[Andes]] starts, in humid and slightly colder forests, on the mountains up to 1,300 meters of altitude, it is found ''Scuticaria salesiana''.<ref name="Dress"/> Under the same conditions but in wider areas, that encompass the southeast of Ecuador and northeast of [[Peru]], lives ''S. peruviana''.<ref name="Chris"/> All species from Amazon are always epiphytic.
Endemic in another area of Amazon, separated but not that far from the habitat of ''Scuticaria steelei'', on southeastern [[Ecuador]], close to the place where the [[Andes]] starts, in humid and slightly colder forests, on the mountains up to 1,300 meters of altitude, it is found ''Scuticaria salesiana''.<ref name="Dress"/> Under the same conditions but in wider areas, that encompass the southeast of Ecuador and northeast of [[Peru]], lives ''S. peruviana''.<ref name="Chris"/> All species from Amazon are always epiphytic.


The remaining species inhabit the area occupied by Brazilian Atlantic Forest. The only species that can be found widespread through several states is ''Scuticaria hadwenii'', in the humid jungles of [[Serra do Mar]] from Santa Catarina to Bahia States,<ref><span style="font-variant:small-caps;">Toscano de Brito, Antônio & Cribb, Phillip</span>: '''Orquídeas da Chapada Diamantina''', pp. 284. Ed. Nova Fronteira, 2005. ISBN 8520917828</ref> generally found living epiphytic at middle height over thick tree stems.<ref name="DM"><span style="font-variant:small-caps;">Miller, David; Richard Warren; Izabel Moura Miller & Helmut Seehawer</span>: '''Serra dos Órgãos sua história e suas orquídeas''', pp. 294. Rio de Janeiro, 2006.</ref> Other species occasionally found, although often under living litophytic over rocks and gatherings of fallen leaves in  sunny areas of the mountains of [[São Paulo]] and [[Rio de Janeiro]], is ''S. strictifolia''.<ref name="Hoehne"/>
The remaining species inhabit the area occupied by Brazilian Atlantic Forest. The only species that can be found widespread through several states is ''Scuticaria hadwenii'', in the humid jungles of [[Serra do Mar]] from Santa Catarina to Bahia States,<ref><span style="font-variant:small-caps;">Toscano de Brito, Antônio & Cribb, Phillip</span>: '''Orquídeas da Chapada Diamantina''', pp. 284. Ed. Nova Fronteira, 2005. ISBN 8520917828</ref> generally found living epiphytic at middle height over thick tree stems.<ref name="DM"><span style="font-variant:small-caps;">Miller, David; Richard Warren; Izabel Moura Miller & Helmut Seehawer</span>: '''Serra dos Órgãos sua história e suas orquídeas''', pp. 294. Rio de Janeiro, 2006.</ref> Other species occasionally found, although often under living litophytic over rocks and gatherings of fallen leaves in  sunny areas of the mountains of [[São Paulo]] and [[Rio de Janeiro]], is ''S. strictifolia''.<ref name="Hoehne"><span style="font-variant:small-caps;">Hoehne, Frederico Carlos</span>: ''Scuticaria'' in '''Flora Brasilica''', vol. 12-7 pp.342. Instituto de Botânica de São Paulo, 1953.</ref>


''Scuticaria irwiniana'', second and last rupicolous species, exists only on the mountains of [[Minas Gerais]] State, found in sunny or shadier places up to two thousand meters of altitude.<ref name="OB"><span style="font-variant:small-caps">Guido Pabst & Fritz Dungs</span>: '''Orchidaceae Brasilienses vol. 2''' pp. 187, Brucke-Verlag Kurt Schmersow, Hildesheim, 1977. ISBN 3871050107 </ref> Two are the species from [[Espírito Santo]] State, ''S. novaesii'' and ''S. kautskyi'', both endemic of restricted areas in the dry jungles of the countryside.<ref name="FB"/> The last ''Scuticaria'' species is ''S. itirapinensis'', which has been found only a couple of times in the west-central dry woods of [[São Paulo]] Sates, in an area which has been highly deforested, close to [[Itirapina]]. There are no records or reports on this species, both in nature and under culture, during the last twenty five years. It is speculated about the possibility of its extinction.<ref name="CAOB">Records of species displayed during orchid shows. Archives of Coordenadoria das Associações Orquidófilas do Brasil - CAOB. Accessed October 2008.</ref>
''Scuticaria irwiniana'', second and last rupicolous species, exists only on the mountains of [[Minas Gerais]] State, found in sunny or shadier places up to two thousand meters of altitude.<ref name="OB"><span style="font-variant:small-caps">Guido Pabst & Fritz Dungs</span>: '''Orchidaceae Brasilienses vol. 2''' pp. 187, Brucke-Verlag Kurt Schmersow, Hildesheim, 1977. ISBN 3871050107 </ref> Two are the species from [[Espírito Santo]] State, ''S. novaesii'' and ''S. kautskyi'', both endemic of restricted areas in the dry jungles of the countryside.<ref name="FB"/> The last ''Scuticaria'' species is ''S. itirapinensis'', which has been found only a couple of times in the west-central dry woods of [[São Paulo]] Sates, in an area which has been highly deforested, close to [[Itirapina]]. There are no records or reports on this species, both in nature and under culture, during the last twenty five years. It is speculated about the possibility of its extinction.<ref name="CAOB">Records of species displayed during orchid shows. Archives of Coordenadoria das Associações Orquidófilas do Brasil - CAOB. Accessed October 2008.</ref>
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The flowers are large, wide open, and last during about two weeks.<ref name="Freitas"/> They have sepals of similar sizes and form an almost invisible chin with the [[column (botany)|column]] foot. The petals may be similar to the sepals but smaller, or much smaller and with a much narrower base, occasionally showing different patterns or colors. The labellum articulates with the column, is trilobed, with comparatively small lateral lobes and larger terminal, which has variable shapes with diverse patterns and a callus under to column. The later is é semi-cylindrical, slightly arching, erect and thick, without any kind of appendix, ending in an apical [[anther]] and elongated in a small foot at the base. The flowers bear to pairs of [[pollinia]] of different sizes. The [[caudicle]] is narrow and the [[retinacle]] is small. The fruits resemble the ones of ''Maxillaria''.<ref name="Hoehne"/> There are no observation records of pollinators activities but ''Scuticaria'' are supposedly pollinated by [[Euglossini]] [[bee]]s.<ref name="DM"/>
The flowers are large, wide open, and last during about two weeks.<ref name="Freitas"/> They have sepals of similar sizes and form an almost invisible chin with the [[column (botany)|column]] foot. The petals may be similar to the sepals but smaller, or much smaller and with a much narrower base, occasionally showing different patterns or colors. The labellum articulates with the column, is trilobed, with comparatively small lateral lobes and larger terminal, which has variable shapes with diverse patterns and a callus under to column. The later is é semi-cylindrical, slightly arching, erect and thick, without any kind of appendix, ending in an apical [[anther]] and elongated in a small foot at the base. The flowers bear to pairs of [[pollinia]] of different sizes. The [[caudicle]] is narrow and the [[retinacle]] is small. The fruits resemble the ones of ''Maxillaria''.<ref name="Hoehne"/> There are no observation records of pollinators activities but ''Scuticaria'' are supposedly pollinated by [[Euglossini]] [[bee]]s.<ref name="DM"/>
==Taxonomic notes==
In May of 1837, the English Botanist [[William Jackson Hooker]] received a drawing and a dried sample of a plant, sent by an orchid grower from [[Liverpool]], together with a note explaining that the plant arrived from  [[Demerara]], in [[Guyana]], in July of the preceding year. Hooker described this species, classifying it under the genus ''[[Maxillaria]]'', calling it ''M. steelei'', in homage to its discover. In his description, Hooker affirms that the plant is highly interesting and an excellent addition to the known epiphytic species because it shows cylindrical leaves almost one meter long, different from anything ever found.<ref><span style="font-variant:small-caps;">Hooker, William Jackson</span>: ''Scuticaria'' in ''' The Botanical magazine 64''': t. 3573. Ed. William Curtis, London, 1837. [http://www.botanicus.org/item/31753002721378 Published on Internet.]
</ref> few months later, [[John Lindley]] published again the species Hooker described, however, adding more information. Two years earlier, several plants had been sent from Demerara and Lindey reports that he had previously informally classified this species as ''Maxillaria flabellifera'' which, under this name, could be found in several orchid collection in [[England]]. Because he had not yet described this species, he accepts the priority of the name chosen by Hooker. Lindley adds, however, that he had some doubts about the classification, of a species so different from any other known so far, under the genus ''Maxillaria''.<ref><span style="font-variant:small-caps;">Lindley, John</span>: ''Scuticaria steelei'' in '''Edward's Botanical Register''' Vol.2, t.1986. James Ridgway & Sons Ed. London, 1837. [http://www.botanicus.org/item/31753002748355 Published on Internet.]</ref>
In 1843, Lindley published a revision of a group of orchids classified as tribus Maxillaridae, then subordinated to Vandeae, a subfamily of Orchidaceae at the time. In this revision, he indicates that much work is needed till the limits between each genus within this tribus can be established and states his doubts regarding some of the new genera he was proposing, despite being very sure of other ones. Lindley suggested the division of Maxillaridae in twenty five genera, being ''Scuticaria'' one of the genera he considered well established. When describing this new genus, Lindley based on morphologic characteristics of ''Maxillaria steelei'' Hook., selected as the [[Type species]] of ''Scuticaria'' with the name ''[[Scuticaria steelei]]''.<ref><span style="font-variant:small-caps;">Lindley, John</span>: ''Scuticaria'' in '''Edward's Botanical Register''' Vol.29 (miscelanea), pp.14. James Ridgway & Sons Ed. London, 1843. [http://www.botanicus.org/item/31753002748421 Published on Internet.]</ref> This name comes from [[Latin]] ''scutica'', flagellum, in reference to the long cylindrical leaves that the species of this genus show, similar to the leather whips used to punish.<ref name="Hoehne"/>


==References==
==References==
{{reflist|2}}
{{reflist|2}}

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Scuticaria
Scientific classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Liliopsida
Order: Asparagales
Family: Orchidaceae
Subfamily: Epidendroideae
Tribe: Cymbidieae
Subtribe: Maxillariinae
Genus: Scuticaria
Lindl. 1843
Type species
Maxillaria steelei
Hook. 1837
Species
Synonyms
  • None

Scuticaria is a genus of orchid family formed by nine species of showy flowers and long cylindrical leaves. They are epiphytic, occasionally lithophytic or terrestrial, that grow pending and are cespitously, or reptant and ascending, which exist is three isolated areas of South America, in Ecuador, Amazon Forest and Serra do Mar and Serra da Mantiqueira mountains, in Brazil, both in shady and sunny places.

The genus Scuticaria has been traditionally placed close to Maxillaria but recent research shows they are more closely related to the genus Bifrenaria. Despite their interesting appearance, the are hardly seen in nature and, because they culture is complicated, they are not common in private collections and orchid shows either. No other use for these species is reported besides ornamentation. Because it is a well established genus, formed by few species that are reasonably easy to separate, there were few publications about them during the last decades.

Distribution and habit

Despite there are few species, Scuticaria inhabit varied climates, disperse in a very uneven way though all countries of South America northern to Bolivia, this excluded, and also in areas of Mata Atlântica in Brazilian Southeast. No species is common in nature, being just occasionally or even rarely found.

The species with wider range is Scuticaria steelei which inhabits open clearings at higher elevations of central Amazon, jungles known as matas de terra firme, up to eight hundred meters of altitude.[1] Although this species occupies wide area, it is not found very often.[2] Another species from Amazon, however, in a much more restricted area, just in Guyana, in places where the altitude is lower and the humidity is higher, is Scuticaria hadwenii var. dogsonii.[3]

Endemic in another area of Amazon, separated but not that far from the habitat of Scuticaria steelei, on southeastern Ecuador, close to the place where the Andes starts, in humid and slightly colder forests, on the mountains up to 1,300 meters of altitude, it is found Scuticaria salesiana.[4] Under the same conditions but in wider areas, that encompass the southeast of Ecuador and northeast of Peru, lives S. peruviana.[5] All species from Amazon are always epiphytic.

The remaining species inhabit the area occupied by Brazilian Atlantic Forest. The only species that can be found widespread through several states is Scuticaria hadwenii, in the humid jungles of Serra do Mar from Santa Catarina to Bahia States,[6] generally found living epiphytic at middle height over thick tree stems.[7] Other species occasionally found, although often under living litophytic over rocks and gatherings of fallen leaves in sunny areas of the mountains of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, is S. strictifolia.[8]

Scuticaria irwiniana, second and last rupicolous species, exists only on the mountains of Minas Gerais State, found in sunny or shadier places up to two thousand meters of altitude.[9] Two are the species from Espírito Santo State, S. novaesii and S. kautskyi, both endemic of restricted areas in the dry jungles of the countryside.[10] The last Scuticaria species is S. itirapinensis, which has been found only a couple of times in the west-central dry woods of São Paulo Sates, in an area which has been highly deforested, close to Itirapina. There are no records or reports on this species, both in nature and under culture, during the last twenty five years. It is speculated about the possibility of its extinction.[11]

Description

The species subordinated to genus Scuticaria are characterized by being plants of thick cylindrical roots covered by thick vellamen. Their stem is formed by a ordinarily short rhizome, slightly elongated in some species; and by cylindrical almost inconspicuous pseudobulbs of the same diameter or slightly thicker than the unique leaf born on their apexes, because they generally are covered by small dried scaling steaths. The leaves may be erect or pending up to one meter long. The inflorescences grow from the said steaths and almost always bear just one flower, exceptionally two in one species, and always is much longer than the pseudobulbs, bearing showy yellow, orange, purple or greenish flowers, with petals and sepals plain, stained or striped, usually by light brown but also by diverse combinations and shades of the other mentioned colors. Ordinarily the labellum presents contrasting colors, frequently with white areas.[8]

The flowers are large, wide open, and last during about two weeks.[2] They have sepals of similar sizes and form an almost invisible chin with the column foot. The petals may be similar to the sepals but smaller, or much smaller and with a much narrower base, occasionally showing different patterns or colors. The labellum articulates with the column, is trilobed, with comparatively small lateral lobes and larger terminal, which has variable shapes with diverse patterns and a callus under to column. The later is é semi-cylindrical, slightly arching, erect and thick, without any kind of appendix, ending in an apical anther and elongated in a small foot at the base. The flowers bear to pairs of pollinia of different sizes. The caudicle is narrow and the retinacle is small. The fruits resemble the ones of Maxillaria.[8] There are no observation records of pollinators activities but Scuticaria are supposedly pollinated by Euglossini bees.[7]

Taxonomic notes

In May of 1837, the English Botanist William Jackson Hooker received a drawing and a dried sample of a plant, sent by an orchid grower from Liverpool, together with a note explaining that the plant arrived from Demerara, in Guyana, in July of the preceding year. Hooker described this species, classifying it under the genus Maxillaria, calling it M. steelei, in homage to its discover. In his description, Hooker affirms that the plant is highly interesting and an excellent addition to the known epiphytic species because it shows cylindrical leaves almost one meter long, different from anything ever found.[12] few months later, John Lindley published again the species Hooker described, however, adding more information. Two years earlier, several plants had been sent from Demerara and Lindey reports that he had previously informally classified this species as Maxillaria flabellifera which, under this name, could be found in several orchid collection in England. Because he had not yet described this species, he accepts the priority of the name chosen by Hooker. Lindley adds, however, that he had some doubts about the classification, of a species so different from any other known so far, under the genus Maxillaria.[13]

In 1843, Lindley published a revision of a group of orchids classified as tribus Maxillaridae, then subordinated to Vandeae, a subfamily of Orchidaceae at the time. In this revision, he indicates that much work is needed till the limits between each genus within this tribus can be established and states his doubts regarding some of the new genera he was proposing, despite being very sure of other ones. Lindley suggested the division of Maxillaridae in twenty five genera, being Scuticaria one of the genera he considered well established. When describing this new genus, Lindley based on morphologic characteristics of Maxillaria steelei Hook., selected as the Type species of Scuticaria with the name Scuticaria steelei.[14] This name comes from Latin scutica, flagellum, in reference to the long cylindrical leaves that the species of this genus show, similar to the leather whips used to punish.[8]

References

  1. Miranda, Francisco: Orquídeas da Amazônia Brasileira, pp. 43. Ed. Expressão e Cultura, 1996. ISBN 8520802087
  2. 2.0 2.1 Freitas Luz, Francisco J.: Orquídeas na Amazônia, pp. 59. Instituto Brasileiro de Cultura, Ed. On Line, 2001. ISBN 8520802087
  3. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named Rchb
  4. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named Dress
  5. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named Chris
  6. Toscano de Brito, Antônio & Cribb, Phillip: Orquídeas da Chapada Diamantina, pp. 284. Ed. Nova Fronteira, 2005. ISBN 8520917828
  7. 7.0 7.1 Miller, David; Richard Warren; Izabel Moura Miller & Helmut Seehawer: Serra dos Órgãos sua história e suas orquídeas, pp. 294. Rio de Janeiro, 2006.
  8. 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 Hoehne, Frederico Carlos: Scuticaria in Flora Brasilica, vol. 12-7 pp.342. Instituto de Botânica de São Paulo, 1953.
  9. Guido Pabst & Fritz Dungs: Orchidaceae Brasilienses vol. 2 pp. 187, Brucke-Verlag Kurt Schmersow, Hildesheim, 1977. ISBN 3871050107
  10. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named FB
  11. Records of species displayed during orchid shows. Archives of Coordenadoria das Associações Orquidófilas do Brasil - CAOB. Accessed October 2008.
  12. Hooker, William Jackson: Scuticaria in The Botanical magazine 64: t. 3573. Ed. William Curtis, London, 1837. Published on Internet.
  13. Lindley, John: Scuticaria steelei in Edward's Botanical Register Vol.2, t.1986. James Ridgway & Sons Ed. London, 1837. Published on Internet.
  14. Lindley, John: Scuticaria in Edward's Botanical Register Vol.29 (miscelanea), pp.14. James Ridgway & Sons Ed. London, 1843. Published on Internet.