Epistephium
| Epistephium | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Epistephium williamsii |
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Epistephium | ||||||||||||
| Kunth |
Epistephium is a genus from the family of the orchid (Orchidaceae). It contains more than twenty types of herbaceous plants that are native to tropical America.
description
The species of the genus Epistephium are terrestrial plants. Some species can be quite large, such as Epistephium hernandii up to five meters. The roots are not thickened. The leaves are distributed along the entire length of the stem. They are seated or short-stalked, reticulated, oval, leathery and shiny.
The many-flowered inflorescence is usually terminal, it can be somewhat branched. The resupinated flowers are usually large and strikingly pink to purple in color. They open one after the other so that one to three are open at the same time. The ovary is thinly cylindrical, sessile, with a wreath of sepal-like teeth (calyculus). The sepals resemble each other, they are spread out and not grown together. The petals are wider than the sepals, also spread out. The lip is abruptly narrowed (nailed) at the base, the nail is fused with the base of the column . The spread of the lip is free, entire or lobed, the lower part includes the column, the front part is spread out and bent down. The lip is covered with ridges along the middle, these are hairy backwards. The column is semicircular in cross section. The stamen is hood-like surrounded by a thin, three-lobed tissue (clinandrium). The stamen is strongly bent down compared to the axis of the column, it is two-chambered, the pollen is divided into four granular sections, which, however, are little connected and do not form any pollinia . The pollen is available as individual pollen grains (monads). The scar is large and lies across the axis of the column. The capsule fruit is cylindrical, the flower cover falls off immediately after pollination, but the teeth on the ovary are retained.
Occurrence
Epistephium is common in tropical America. The distribution extends over the northern half of South America. Epistephium ellipticum has a disjoint area in northern South America and in Belize . The plants are found at altitudes from 100 to 1200 meters.
The locations are in savannahs, grasslands or in bushes, the climate is humid in the growing season, but usually has a distinctly dry season.
Systematics and botanical history
Epistephium is classified within the subfamily Vanilloideae in the tribe Vanilleae . The closest related genera are not clear: in addition to a close relationship to Clematepistephium , Eriaxis , Erythrorchis or Vanilla , a position as sister taxon to all remaining Vanilleae is also possible .
Epistephium was first described by Kunth in 1822 . The name Epistephium comes from the Greek epi- , "over", and stephanos , "crown", it refers to the toothed edge of the ovary. Type species is Epistephium elatum .
.jpg)
_pl._5485_(1864).jpg)
The following 28 species belong to the genus Epistephium :
- Epistephium amabile Schltr. : Peru and eastern Bolivia.
- Epistephium amplexicaule (Ruiz & Pav.) Poepp. & Endl. : Colombia, Guiana, Peru, Bolivia.
- Epistephium araracuarae Szlach., Mytnik & Baranow , Colombia
- Epistephium brevicristatum R.E. Schul . : Colombia.
- Epistephium cardonae Szlach. & Kolan. : Colombia.
- Epistephium chironii Molinari, Carpio & Mend.-Tinc. : Peru.
- Epistephium duckei Huber : Tropical South America.
- Epistephium elatum Kunth : Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela.
- Epistephium ellipticum R.O. Williams & Summerh. : Belize, Trinidad, Costa Rica, Guiana, Venezuela, Peru and northern Brazil.
- Epistephium epiphyticum Szlach. & Kolan. : Colombia.
- Epistephium frederici-augusti Rchb.f. & Warsz. : Colombia.
- Epistephium garayi Szlach., Mytnik & Baranow : Colombia and Guiana.
- Epistephium hernandii Garay : Colombia, Venezuela and northern Brazil.
- Epistephium kubiyuense Szlach., Mytnik & Baranow : Colombia.
- Epistephium lamprophyllum Schltr. : Ecuador.
- Epistephium laxiflorum Barb. Rodr. : Brazil.
- Epistephium lobulosum Garay : Ecuador.
- Epistephium matogrossense Hoehne : Brazil.
- Epistephium parviflorum Lindl. : Trinidad to tropical South America.
- Epistephium portellianum Barb. Rodr . : Brazil.
- Epistephium praestans Hoehne : Brazil.
- Epistephium rhombilabium Szlach., Mytnik & Baranow : Colombia
- Epistephium sclerophyllum Lindl. : Tropical South America to northeast Argentina.
- Epistephium sessiliflorum Lindl. : Colombia.
- Epistephium speciosum Barb. Rodr. : Brazil.
- Epistephium subrepens Hoehne : Southeastern Columbia to Guiana and eastern Bolivia.
- Epistephium trianae Szlach., Mytnik & Baranow : Colombia.
- Epistephium williamsii Hook.f. (Syn .: Epistephium lucidum Cogn. ): Northern South America to Paraguay.
No longer counted in this genus:
- Epistephium herzogianum Kraenzl. => Bletia catenulata Ruiz & Pav.
literature
Most of the information in this article comes from:
- Leslie A. Garay: 225 (1). Orchidaceae (Cypripedioideae, Orchidoideae and Neottioideae) . In: Gunnar Harling, Benkt Sparre (ed.): Flora of Ecuador . tape 9 , 1978, ISSN 0347-8742 , p. 53-54 .
- 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 and Oxford 2003, ISBN 0-19-850711-9 , pp. 306-309 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac Rafaël Govaerts (Ed.): Epistephium. In: World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP) - The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew . Retrieved July 11, 2018.
Web links
- List of orchid genera
- Epistephium - the genus , by Nina Rach