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''Scuticaria'' is a genus of orchids comprising 9 species native to Belize, Brazil, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela. Members of this genus have 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, they are hardly seen in nature and, because their 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.〔Miranda, Francisco: Orquídeas da Amazônia Brasileira, pp. 43. Ed. Expressão e Cultura, 1996. ISBN 85-208-0208-7〕 Although this species occupies wide area, it is not found very often.〔Freitas Luz, Francisco J.: Orquídeas na Amazônia, pp. 59. Instituto Brasileiro de Cultura, Ed. On Line, 2001. ISBN 85-208-0208-7〕 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''.〔Reichenbach, Heinrich Gustav: ''Scuticaria dogsonii'' in Gardeners' Chronicle vol.15: pp.9. London, 1881.〕 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''.〔Dressler, Robert Louis: ''Scuticaria salesiana'' in Orquideologia vol.3(2): pp.3. Revista de la Sociedad Colombiana de Orquideologia. Medellin, 1968.〕 Under the same conditions but in wider areas, that encompass the southeast of Ecuador and northeast of Peru, lives ''S. peruviana''.〔Bennett, David E. & Christenson, Eric: ''Scuticaria peruviana'' in Orchid Digest 66: pp.64. Berkeley, California, 2002.〕 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,〔Toscano de Brito, Antônio & Cribb, Phillip: Orquídeas da Chapada Diamantina, pp. 284. Ed. Nova Fronteira, 2005. ISBN 85-209-1782-8〕 generally found living epiphytic at middle height over thick tree stems.〔Miller, David; Richard Warren; Izabel Moura Miller & Helmut Seehawer: Serra dos Órgãos sua história e suas orquídeas, pp. 294. Rio de Janeiro, 2006.〕 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''.〔Hoehne, Frederico Carlos: ''Scuticaria'' in Flora Brasilica, vol. 12-7 pp.342. Instituto de Botânica de São Paulo, 1953.〕 ''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.〔Guido Pabst & Fritz Dungs: Orchidaceae Brasilienses vol. 2 pp. 187, Brucke-Verlag Kurt Schmersow, Hildesheim, 1977. 〕 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.〔Barros, Fábio & Catharino, Eduardo L.M.: ''Scuticaria novaesii'', nova espécie de Orchidaceae do Brasil. Hoehnea vol. 9: pp. 52-62, São Paulo, 1982.〕 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.〔Records of species displayed during orchid shows. Archives of Coordenadoria das Associações Orquidófilas do Brasil - CAOB. Accessed October 2008.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Scuticaria (orchid)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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