Aenhenrya rotundifolia
| Aenhenrya rotundifolia | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||||
| Aenhenrya | ||||||||||||
| Gopalan | ||||||||||||
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| Aenhenrya rotundifolia | ||||||||||||
| ( Sheet. ) CSKumar & FNRasm. |
The orchid Aenhenrya rotundifolia is the only species in the genus Aenhenrya . The small, herbaceous plants come from southern India.
description
Aenhenrya rotundifolia has a creeping, fleshy rhizome , the regularly spaced nodes are somewhat constricted. The plants have no roots, only thin rhizoids . The leaves are arranged in a spiral, they are broad-oval shaped, pointed to a point, with a heart-shaped base. It has a whitish pattern on a green background.
The terminal inflorescence bears only one or two white, resupinated flowers . At around 2.5 centimeters, the flower is quite large compared to the plant. The petals are not wide open, but form a narrow tube. The upper sepal and the side petals close to it arch over the flower, the side sepals and the lip form the lower part of the tube. The side edges of the lip are turned up in a U-shape. The column carries at its base on the underside of the scar on the upper surface of the stamen . The scar is three-lobed, each lobe forms a sterile outgrowth - the lower two are fused together and point about 10 millimeters forward, the middle scar lobe forms the usual separating tissue between the scar and stamen (rostellum). This is very long with about 15 millimeters and has the oval adhesive disc ( Viscidium ) at the top . The stamen contains two pollinia , which are connected to the adhesive disc by a stalk about 12 millimeters long.
The capsule fruit is about two centimeters long, narrow oval and triangular in cross section. The thread-like seeds reach about a millimeter in length.
distribution
Aenhenrya rotundifolia is known from a few collections from the Indian states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu . The plants grow at altitudes of 500 to 1500 meters in the shade of evergreen, moist forests.
Botanical history
The species was first described by Blatter in 1928 as Odontochilus rotundifolius after an incomplete specimen found in 1927 . In 1994 R. Gopalan published the description of Aenhenrya agastyamalayana without noticing Blatter's earlier publication. Sathish and Rasmussen found that both descriptions mean the same plant species. Due to the unusual structure of the flower, they retained Gopalan's assessment that a new genus should be established for these plants. It is unclear which genera within the subtribe Goodyerinae Aenhenrya is closely related to.
See also
literature
- Alec M. Pridgeon, Phillip Cribb, Mark W. Chase, Finn Rasmussen (Eds.): Genera Orchidacearum. Orchidoideae (Part 2). Vanilloideae . tape 3/2 . Oxford University Press, New York / Oxford 2003, ISBN 0-19-850711-9 , pp. 70 .
- C. Sathish Kumar, Finn N. Rasmussen: The Reappearance of Odontochilus rotundifolius Blatter and Its Transfer to Aenhenrya Gopalan (Orchidaceae) . In: Novon . tape 7 , 1997, ISSN 1055-3177 , pp. 81-84 ( botanicus.org ).