Is the labellum informative to distinguish species of Scaphyglottis(Orchidaceae)? Insights from geometric morphometrics

Scaphyglottis Poepp. & Endl. (Orchidaceae) is a neotropical genus with 78 species, 14 of which are found in Brazil. Some these taxa have an intricate taxonomy, especially due to the morphological similarity among species and existence complexes. Our study aims test if labellum shape, main source diagnostic characters, can confirm proposed circumscription Brazilian Scaphyglottis. We analyzed 136 flowers from 12 we applied landmarks, using geometric morphometrics approach. results show that most be distinguished. Most variation observed claw apices lobes, confirming important tool taxon distinction. Species distinctly 3-lobed showed some overlap but, for taxa, distinction specially lateral lobes. new morphologically variable features used future taxonomic studies. For widely distributed suggest population-level approach, as local environmental factors impact morphology, causing expected intraspecific variation.