Scuticaria: Difference between revisions

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'''''Scuticaria''''' is a genus of [[orchid]] family formed by nine species of showy [[flower]]s and long cylindrical [[leaf|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 Foresta]] and [[Serra do Mar]] and [[Serra da Mantiqueira]] mountains, in [[Brazil]], both in shady and sunny places.     
'''''Scuticaria''''' is a genus of [[orchid]] family formed by nine species of showy [[flower]]s and long cylindrical [[leaf|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.
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.

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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 onlu on the mountains of Minas Gerais State, found in sunny or shadier places up to two thousand meters of altitude.[9] Twoa re the species from Estado do 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]

References

  1. Miranda, Francisco: Orquídeas da Amazônia Brasileira, pp. 43. Ed. Expressão e Cultura, 1996. ISBN 8520802087
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  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
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  6. Toscano de Brito, Antônio & Cribb, Phillip: Orquídeas da Chapada Diamantina, pp. 284. Ed. Nova Fronteira, 2005. ISBN 8520917828
  7. Miller, David; Richard Warren; Izabel Moura Miller & Helmut Seehawer: Serra dos Órgãos sua história e suas orquídeas, pp. 294. Rio de Janeiro, 2006.
  8. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named Hoehne
  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.