Scaphosepalum verrucosum

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

This is a flower from my Scaphosepalum verrucosum.

I've had it for about 2 years.

These are almost always in bloom. The long wiry spikes bloom sequentially. Each flower is about 1/4" long.

Pretty easy to grow imo.

Took a photo of it to try out a new lens. Looks pretty good so far. Up until now, I've always had difficulties getting some decent shots of tiny flowered orchids in my collection.

[Paul]

Love scaphs! Haven't gotten my verr. to spike yet. May be an age thing (not sure how old it is). Hopefully it isn't a temperature or humidity issue ... that would be difficult to solve. (It sits by my breve which seems to bloom fine.)

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Hmm…

This orchid can bloom at small sizes, (about 1.25" is when you can expect to start seeing spikes).

Mine is pretty temperature tolerant. It can take it down to 36 F during winter nights, and it can handle 100 F summer days. Not all Scaphs can do this.

I grow mine outdoors all year round and have not seen any problems with it.

Humidity is moderate (between 50% - 70%, occasionally 90% at night).

It does grow pretty bright though. I grow mine with my Cattleya amethystoglossa. This is one of the only Scaphs I can do this with. No other Scaph I've ever grown grows this bright.

[tuvoc]

Cool.

Kim

[nikkik]

Very cool. I love sequential bloomers!

[Bud]

I love the yummy color on this orchid plant. I see more buds about to come out. I know you are trying out the lens feature but I am curious to see the whole plant structure.

[TOMMYMIAMI]

This is really nice yellowish color, very pretty!

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Here's a photo of the entire plant.

There are 7 spikes visible. The 8th spike is hidden in between leaves and is a younger spike with two flowers.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

The smaller 8th spike, (the photos could only be taken from a top view of the plant).

Both photos are of the same spike. One photo shows the left flower clearer, and the other photo shows the right flower clearer.

These photos were taken with my new lens, and was only able to be taken with it. Using the standard lens wouldn't have gotten pictures nearly this decent. It's not a true macro lens that costs $500, but it does what I wanted it to do, which is fine.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

You know what…

I just realized not everybody knows the floral anatomy of a Scaphosepalum!

They are such strange looking flowers; they don't look like the stereotypical orchid blossom.

Here it goes:

Look at the first pic.

The floral segment on the bottom that looks like the bottom jaw of the flower - that's the dorsal sepal.

The floral segments on the top that look like the flower's top jaw - those are fused lateral sepals called a synsepal.

The two projections coming out of the synsepal that look like fangs, those are the sepaline tails.

There are two thin projections coming out of the sides that look like the flower's tongue - those two projections are not one piece, they are two pieces and they are the flower's petals.

This orchid's lip is tiny and is hidden inside the "roof" of the flower's "mouth", where the synsepals are. In the first photo, you can barely see a small corner of it popping out. It's the big, dark burgundy spot.

The column is obscured by the petals and is positioned closer to the dorsal sepal.

My lens is probably not powerful enough to capture a photo of the flower's column and lip. I could try to see if I can get a photo of the lip and column with the lens I have later.