Home › S › Sarcochilus (From sarx sarkos flesh)

Sarcochilus (From sarx sarkos flesh)

(from sarx, sarkos, flesh, and cheilos, a lip; alluding to the fleshy lip). SYNS. Dendrocolla, Thrixspermum. Including Camarotis, Gunnia, Micropera, and Ornitharium. ORD. Orchideae. A genus embracing some thirty species of stove, epiphytal, caulescent, not pseudo-bulbous orchids, natives of the East Indies, the Malayan Archipelago, the Pacific Islands, and Australia. Flowers mediocre or small (in S. Calceolus showy); sepals and petals spreading, the lateral sepals often more or less adnate to the foot of the column; lip without a spur, three-lobed, the lateral lobes petaloid or tooth-like, the middle one variable, fleshy; column erect; pollen masses two, globose, or four more or less connate in a pair; peduncles lateral, simple or rarely branched. Leaves coriaceous or fleshy, oblong or linear, distichous, or sometimes very few or deficient. "In many respects, the genus resembles Dendrobium, but differs much from it in the form of the pollen masses, in their attachment to a caudicle, and in the seed capsule and seed" (Fitzgerald). The two species of this genus most common in gardens are S. Fitzgeraldi and S. Hartmanni. These should be grown in a greenhouse temperature, along with such plants as Odonto-glossum citrosmum. They like a moist atmosphere, subdued light, and plenty of water at the root always. Peat and sphagnum are the best mixture for them. The species known in gardens are here described.

S. Calceolus (slipper-like). fl. white; sepals and petals fleshy, oblong, acute; middle lobe of lip slipper-like, but closed up, the lateral lobes ascending, triangular; peduncles short, two-flowered. l. oblong, fleshy, obliquely emarginate, obtuse. Stem elongated. Manilla, 1844. (B. R. 1846, 19.) S. cochinchinensis (Cochin China). fl. yellowish, glutinous; sepals striped with brown over the middle nerves outside, and with some dark yellow patches under the column; racemes small. l. rather narrow, linear-ligulate, bilobed at apex. Cochin China, 1877. SYN. Camarotis cochinchinensis. S. falcatus (sickle-shaped). fl. white, usually three or four, distant; lateral sepals adnate to the basal projections of the column; peduncles scarcely exceeding, sometimes shorter than, the leaves. l. oblong, often falcate, 2in. to 4in. long. Stems 2in. to 3in. high. Australia, 1821. (B. R. 1832.) S. Fitzgeraldi (Fitzgerald's).* fl. snowy-white, spotted with rich lake or maroon; lip not half the length of the sepals, the lateral lobes falcate; peduncle, with the raceme, 6in. to 12in. long. l. 3in. to 6in. long. Australia, 1877. Habit that of S. falcatus.

S. Freemanii (Freeman's). fl. yellow, with brownish spots and streaks, numerous in a raceme; sepals very long, narrow-linear; petals a little shorter than the sepals; lip small, saccate, tridentate. l. ligulate, here and there undulated, bidentate, 6in. to 7in. long, 1 1/4in. wide. Assam, 1876. An elegant, dwarf species. SYN. Thrixspermum Freemanii. S. Hartmanni (Hartmann's). fl. beautiful creamy-white, rather small; sepals and petals with brick-red spots at base; side laciniae of the lip spotted and streaked with brick-red, semi-falcate or oblong, the middle lacinia yellow; callus yellow, with red spots; raceme dense. l. generally four, rather thick, ligulate, bidentate. Queensland, 1877. SYN. Thrixspermum Hartmanni. S. ionosmum (Violet-scented). fl. about 1in. across, flat, in an open panicle, with a pleasant, Violet-like scent; sepals and petals yellow, blotched with cinnamon-brown, obovate, obtuse; lip white, with a few red streaks, the basal lobes acute and much smaller than the middle one. l. ensiform. Manilla, 1844. (B. R. xxxiii. 41.) S. olivaceus (Olive-like). fl., sepals and petals dull pale purple or yellowish-brown, much contracted below the middle; lip white, streaked with red, about half as long as the sepals; racemes loose, two or three-flowered. l. oblong, often falcate, 2in. to 3in. long. Stems less than 1in. long. Australia.

S. pallidus (pale). fl. pale yellow, mediocre, eight to fifteen in a short raceme. l. broadly linear, arcuate, oblique at apex, some-what three-toothed.