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Scaphyglottis tenuis; photograph author not stated, no rights reserved CC0author not stated, no rights reserved · observed growing wild · 2023-04-23

Scaphyglottis tenuis L.O.Williams

Orchidaceae · Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest

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Scaphyglottis tenuis, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 2 photographs ›
Habitat figuresfrom few records
Coldest month, mean nightly low
12.6°C
Jan and Feb at the habitat, not a floor; extremes not used (sea cell) CHELSA
Warmest month, mean daily high
29°C
Apr and May at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,419mm
6 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
28–47DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes June to September, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

From few records: 4 records in 4 grid cells. The records.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,165 mm of 1,403 mm) falls in June to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 22.0 °C against a yearly mean of 20.5 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to March.

Rain

1,403 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,165 mm of it June to September. Wettest month July at 340 mm, driest month April at 4 mm; 1 month under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,217 mm to 1,547 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,419 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,403 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 47 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 27, the highest 90th-percentile month 48).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 12.6 °C in January and February (across the grid cells of the range 8.8 °C to 17.9 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 29.1 °C in May (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is 12.6 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, January and February, in the median year (CHELSA); a month's mean of its nightly lows is warmer than the nights a floor is read from. The daily extremes were read at a weather cell that is mostly sea and are not used.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 52 to 70% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. No cold floor is read without a daily extremes series; the coldest month's mean nightly low named in its sentence is not one. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

From few records: this habitat climate is read from 4 records in 4 grid cells; a page says so under 12 records or 5 cells, and shows the figures as read.

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Scaphyglottis tenuis through the yearWarmest months April and May, mean daily high 29 °C; coldest months January and February, mean nightly low 12.6 °C; 1,403 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.5°10°15°20°25°30°35°°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 28–47RH 52–70%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 4 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C24 / 22–2625 / 24–2727 / 25–2829 / 27–2929 / 28–3027 / 25–3026 / 23–2926 / 23–2925 / 23–2925 / 23–2925 / 23–2824 / 23–27
Night °C13 / 9–1813 / 9–1813 / 10–1815 / 12–1917 / 13–2119 / 15–2319 / 15–2419 / 15–2419 / 15–2418 / 14–2315 / 11–2114 / 10–19
Rain mm40 / 37–4118 / 15–206 / 4–74 / 3–515 / 11–23193 / 165–235340 / 287–379316 / 259–348316 / 254–356114 / 110–13422 / 20–3019 / 18–21
DLI30 / 28–3236 / 35–3843 / 42–4447 / 47–4747 / 46–4837 / 34–3733 / 31–3332 / 30–3228 / 28–2931 / 30–3131 / 30–3228 / 27–31
RH %56 / 52–6155 / 49–6054 / 47–5952 / 46–5756 / 51–5967 / 66–6869 / 68–7070 / 68–7170 / 69–7166 / 63–7061 / 56–6557 / 53–62

The daily extremes were read at a NASA POWER cell that is 40% land: neither it nor the next candidates whose coldest month's mean nightly low is within 2 °C of the median across cells sit in a POWER cell that is mostly land, and the rule reads a cold floor only from a cell that is mostly land, so none is read for this species. Nor is the coldest month's mean nightly low taken as one: it is a mean of a month's lows, not its coldest night. What that cell gave over 44 years: absolute minimum 13.6 °C, 1st-percentile night 16.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 27.6 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 4 grid cells holding the 4 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1393:1493 (20.325, -105.325). Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 4 distinct grid cells holding 4 of the 4 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1393:1493 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells, though its NASA POWER cell is only 40% land and none of the 0 next candidates within 2 °C of the median was mostly land); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 20.50_-105.625, lapse-corrected +501 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 657 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeMexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker21.5, -104.9 · in the densest population, 8 records (100% of those in range)
Kew's description“pseudobulbous epiphyte” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 8 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 4 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 4 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. Under a dozen records behind the map and the climate. 4 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 8 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Scaphyglottis tenuis, photograph 1did not load

Photographs: author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0.

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Chamaedorea pochutlensis Chamaedorea pochutlensis Arecaceae Photo: CC BY, Alberto AlcaláDioon tomasellii Dioon tomasellii Palmita Photo: CC0, author not statedAechmea tuitensis Aechmea tuitensis Bromeliaceae Photo: CC BY, BromelsMormodes badia Mormodes badia Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, P Gonzalez Zamora Tillandsia mooreana Bromeliaceae Laelia × crawshayana Laelia × crawshayana Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Abraham Sánchez Romero

Other Scaphyglottis 13 in the reference

Scaphyglottis bidentata Scaphyglottis bidentata Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, keesgroenendijkScaphyglottis boliviensis Scaphyglottis boliviensis Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Dalton Holland BaptistaScaphyglottis crurigera Scaphyglottis crurigera Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Alexis López HernándezScaphyglottis fasciculata Scaphyglottis fasciculata Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Matteo CassellaScaphyglottis fusiformis Scaphyglottis fusiformis Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Dalton Holland BaptistaScaphyglottis graminifolia Scaphyglottis graminifolia Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Ángela Patricia Rojas CortésScaphyglottis imbricata Scaphyglottis imbricata Orchidaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedScaphyglottis leucantha Scaphyglottis leucantha Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Martha Lucia Ortiz-MorenoScaphyglottis lindeniana Scaphyglottis lindeniana Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Alina MartinScaphyglottis modesta Scaphyglottis modesta Malaysian orchid Photo: CC BY, novvictanScaphyglottis prolifera Scaphyglottis prolifera Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Letizia WeichgrebeScaphyglottis punctulata Scaphyglottis punctulata Dotted orchid Photo: CC BY-SA, Thibaud Aronson all 14 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Scaphyglottis oblonga; Sessilibulbum oblonga; Sessilibulbum tenuis. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataiNaturalist

The record

Family
Orchidaceae
Described by
L.O.Williams
Native to
Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest
Wild records
8 in range · 4 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 1 record within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (1 at a botanic garden or arboretum; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 20.50_-105.625, lapse-corrected +501 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: NASA POWER's cell is mostly sea (40% land), so no cold floor is shown
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22none of the photographs on this page is credited to GBIF: those shown are other sources', and GBIF's were the same photographs or were set aside by the photograph rules
Wikimedia Commons commons nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 3 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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