Paphinia dunstervillei
| Orchid genus Paphinia | ||||||||||||||||||||
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About
The classification of this orchid species was published by Calaway H. Dodson & Tilman Neudecker with their description based on two drawings in 1991. The name was invalid until a specimen could be obtained for proper identification under article 9.1 of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature. A holotype of the species was collected on 31 May 1993 in Venezuela by G.A. Romero, Keeper of the Oakes Ames Orchid Herbarium at Harvard University. The pressed specimen is now part of the collection at Gray Herbarium at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts - USA. Etymology: Named after G.C.K. Dunsterville, who first collected and illustrated the species. Distribution is known from two sites in the Atabapo-Siapo shrublands of Venezuela.
Plant Morphology
Planta affinis Paphiniae cristata (Lindl.), sed habitu terrestri, inflorescentia erecta et pilis binis in basi labelli diversa.
Description: Terrestrial herb. Rhizome short. Pseudobulbs appressed, laterrally compressed, narrowly ovate, costate, to 2cm wide and 8cm long, 2 to 30folite, with 2 to 3 distichous, foliaceous sheaths surrounding the base. Leaves thin, heavily veined on the underside, narrowly ovate, acuminate, to 8cm wide and 32cm long. Infloresence produced from the base of the pseudobulb, erect, stout, surrounded by 2 to 4 sheaths, 3 to 5-flowered, to 22cm long.
Flower Morphology
Description: Flowers nodding, resupinate. Pedicellate ovary terete, to 4cm long. Sepals and petal dark wine red, spotted white toward the base, membrabaceous; sepals lanceolatem acuminate, to 1.6cm wide and 7cm long; petals narrowly ovate, acuminate, to 1.4cm wide and 6cm long. Labellum 3-lobed, to 1.6cm wide and 3cm long, with a central plate-like callus between the lateral lobes, this callus with two-teeth-like backward and forward projections, the forward projection lightly bifid, a series of irregular, fleshy papillae between the plate-like callus and the base; lateral lobes, falcate, acute, the lateral margins thickend; midlobe trullate, the margins ciliate in the apical half, the upper and lower surface and the margins pailose, the apex rounded, slightly concave. Column green, yellow toward the apex, arcuate, clavate, winged.
Pollinarium with two narrowly obovate yellow pollinia, a narrow, slender, hialine stipe, .05cm long, and a semicircular, yellow viscidium. Anther yellow.
References
- International Plant Names Index
- Excerpt from the American Orchid Society Bulletin: 62. September 1993
- The Orchids of the Yavita-Maroa Road, Preliminary Checklist. - G.A. Romero.
