A new species of Elleanthus (Orchidaceae) from Central America Fredy Archila Morales 1,2 & Guy R. Chiron 3 ________________________________ 1 Estación Experimental de orquídeas de la familia Archila 2 Herbario BIGU, Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala 3 Herbiers, Université de Lyon 1, F-69622 Villeurbanne Cedex (France) ________________________________ Abstract During botanical tours in Alta Verapaz (Guatemala), a plant of the genus Elleanthus drew the attention of the senior author by the color of its leaves, intense purple on their abaxial side. After having thoroughly examined it we came to the conclusion that it was something different from any known species. It is described here as a new species and compared to its closest relative, Elleanthus hymenophorus , by means of morphological descriptions, botanical drawings and photos. Résumé Au cours de sorties botaniques réalisées en Alta Verapaz (Guatemala), une plante du genre Elleanthus a attiré l'attention du premier auteur par la couleur de ses feuilles, d'un violet intense en partie abaxiale. Une étude approfondie a montré qu'il s'agissait d'un taxon ne correspondant à aucune espèce connue. Elle est décrite ici comme espèce nouvelle, comparée à l'espèce la plus proche, Elleanthus hymenophorus. Sa description est accompagnée de dessins botaniques et de photographies. C'est une espèce qui est menacée par la destruction des habitats et une collecte d'autant plus excessive qu'elle possède des caractéristiques faisant d'elle une plante ornementale. Manuscrit reçu le 20/10/2018 Article mis en ligne le 25/10/2018 – pp. 166-171
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A new species of Elleanthus (Orchidaceae)from Central America
Fredy Archila Morales1,2 & Guy R. Chiron3
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1Estación Experimental de orquídeas de la familia Archila2Herbario BIGU, Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala3Herbiers, Université de Lyon 1, F-69622 Villeurbanne Cedex (France)________________________________
AbstractDuring botanical tours in Alta Verapaz (Guatemala), a plant of the genusElleanthus drew the attention of the senior author by the color of its leaves,intense purple on their abaxial side. After having thoroughly examined itwe came to the conclusion that it was something different from any knownspecies. It is described here as a new species and compared to its closestrelative, Elleanthus hymenophorus, by means of morphological descriptions,botanical drawings and photos.
RésuméAu cours de sorties botaniques réalisées en Alta Verapaz (Guatemala), uneplante du genre Elleanthus a attiré l'attention du premier auteur par lacouleur de ses feuilles, d'un violet intense en partie abaxiale. Une étudeapprofondie a montré qu'il s'agissait d'un taxon ne correspondant à aucuneespèce connue. Elle est décrite ici comme espèce nouvelle, comparée àl'espèce la plus proche, Elleanthus hymenophorus. Sa description estaccompagnée de dessins botaniques et de photographies. C'est une espècequi est menacée par la destruction des habitats et une collecte d'autant plusexcessive qu'elle possède des caractéristiques faisant d'elle une planteornementale.
Manuscrit reçu le 20/10/2018 Article mis en ligne le 25/10/2018 – pp. 166-171
ResumenEn recorridos realizados en Alta Verapaz, llamo la atención una planta delgénero Elleanthus, por el color de sus hojas un morado intenso en la parteabaxial, al estudiarla detenidamente se pudo establecer que se trataba deuna especie que no encajaba con ninguna de las especies ya descritas, porlo que después de elaborar los iconos botánicos, el descriptor, su diagnosis,se presenta como nueva especie y se compara con su pariente más próxima,Elleanthus hymenophorus. Posee características potenciales para convertirseen cultivo ornamental.
IntroductionFor most authors the genus Elleanthus C. Presl (1827: 97) belongs to thesubtribe Sobraliinae which has been placed in various tribes among whichthe tribe Sobralieae, described by Pfitzer in 1887, and usually considered asa natural group, at least in parte (Neubig et al., 2011). We must note thatSzlachetko (1991) placed the genus in its own subtribe, Elleanthinae. Themain centre of diversification of Elleanthus is the Andine region; howeverthe genus is present up to the Neotropical Mesoamerican zone. It iscomprised of ca. 100 species, distributed in tropical America and theeastern West Indies. In Guatemala Ames & Correll (1952-1953) reportedthree species, however two are now placed within AdeneleuterophoraBarbosa Rodrigues (1882: 171): A. linifolia (C. Presl, 1827: 97) Dudek &Szlachetko (2010: 5) and A. poiformis (Schlechter, 1923: 164) Dudek &Szlachetko (2010: 5). Only one is still treated as a true Elleanthus,E. capitatus, though cited with a wrong authority: the basionym of thespecies cited by Ames & Correll is Bletia capitata R. Brown (1813: 206) =Elleanthus cephalotus Garay & H.R. Sweet (1972: 390), a species endemics toWest Indies. Finally we do not know which species represents the plantlisted in their book. Among the seven species listed by Dix & Dix (2000),apart from the same “E. capitatus”, only two are true Elleanthus: E. caricoidesNash (1907: 119) and E. hymenophorus (Reichenbach f., 1852: 710)Reichenbach f. (1862: 480). Recently Archila & Chiron (2017) proposed twoGuatemalan new species, Elleantus asturiasii Archila & Chiron (2017: 149)
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and Elleanthus gelatinosus Archila & Chiron (2017: 152), both with lilas-colored capitate flowers, who are now considered as members of the genusEvelyna Rafinesque (1838: 164). Finally, only two Elleanthus species havehitherto been found in Guatemala (Archila et al., in press). During one ofhis botanical tours in Alta Verapaz, the senior author noticed an Elleanthusplant leaves of which were intense purple on their abaxial face. It isdescribed below as a new species.In Orchidaceae the rewards to pollinators are very diverse (Van der Cingel,2001) and include nectar, resins, wax and other types of food, fragrances ...and pseudocopulation, as in Lepanthes (Archila, 2001). However, the mostcommon reward is nectar, which is present in flowers of variousmorphologies, adapted to various pollinators, insects such as Diptera(flies), Hymenoptera (bees and wasps), Lepidoptera (butterflies), and birdssuch asTrochilidae (colibris) in the New World (Neubig et al., 2015). It canbe observed that Elleanthus flowers are visited by colibris which pollinate95-98% of their flowers; however it is suspected that the colibri, whencollecting the nectar, pushes with its beak the pollinia towards the stigma,instead of transporting the pollinia from a flower to another one. It couldexplain the high pollination rate. Besides, these observations can indicatethat the bird is attracted by the color of the flowers (orange), little variablein the species of the genus, more than by the shape of the flowers. That iswhy the morphology is very stable within a particular species. So themorphological differences within the genus are considered as a strongtaxonomic basis to differentiate species.
Taxonomic treatmentElleanthus C. Presl, Reliquiae Haenkeanae 1(2): 97. 1827.TYPE: Elleanthus lancifolius C. Presl.Epiphytic, terrestrial or lithophytic plants with no storage organs. Leaveslinear, lanceolate to elliptic-lanceolate, plicate, glabrous or pubescent.Inflorescence terminal, usually densely few- to many-flowered, arrangedspirally or distichiously. Floral bracts prominent, imbricating, oftenbrightly coloured, yellow, orange to purple. Flowers small to medium,erect, tubular, white, lemon-yellow, orange to deep purple. Tepalsdissimilar or subsimilar. Lateral sepals free or partially connate at the base.Lip saccate and tubular at the base, more or less enclosing thegynostemium, unlobed or obscurely 3-lobed, with fimbriate or dentate
A new Elleanthus from Guatemala – Archila & Chiron
margins, with a pair of large globose or subglobose calli. Gynostemiumslender. Anther terminal, erect. Pollinia 8, clavate to obovoid, laterallycompressed. Caudiculae sticky. Apical clinandrium obscure or ratherprominent. Stigma obtriangular to elliptic, deeply concave. Rostellumshelf-like to ligulate, erect to subincumbent, truncate to rounded.Viscidium single of various sizes, sometimes relatively large. Rostellumremnant foveolate. (Archila et al., in press).
Plant medium-sized, thin; leaves elliptic, with a very strong apicalconstriction, 10-18.7 cm long, 5-7 cm wide, purple on their abaxial face,sheathing petiole corinthe glabrous; inflorescence with a basal bract ellipticand wide; floral bracts short and acute, 0.5-1 cm long, 0.2-0.3 cm wide;dorsal sepal triangular-ovate, apically acute, 0.55 cm long, 0.35 cm wide;lateral sepals oblong, shortly mucronate, 0.55 cm long, 0.4 cm wide; petalslinear-elliptic, apically acute, 0.4 cm long, 0.1 cm wide; lip 0.75 cm long, 0.5cm wide, divided into two parts, apical lamina subquadrate, basal partsaccate, with lateral projections obliquely orbicular and with two obliquelyoblong appendages inside; gynostemium 0.3 cm long, oblong-ovate; anthertotally covering the apical part of the gynostemium; ovary 0.4 cm long,glabrous. Fig. 1.
Taxonomic notes. The closest relative of this new species is Elleanthushymenophorus (Fig. 2). However a number of differences allow to easilydistinguish them. In the latter the plants are large and robust, the leaves aregreen, orbicular-eliptic, inconspicuously constricted, with a greenpubescent (scattered scaly pubescence) petiole, the inflorescence bract islinear-oblong, the floral bracts long and acuminate, the dorsal sepal and thepetals oblong obtuse, the lateral sepals elliptic long-mucronate, the apical
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lamina of the lip orbicular, the lateral projections of the lip basal part arenot oblique, the gynostemium is oblong, the anther covers only 80% of thegynostemium apex and the ovary is adorned with a scattered scalypubescence. See Fig. 3 & 4.
Fig. 1. Elleanthus archilae Fig. 2. Elleanthus hymenophorus[drawings F. Archila]
Fig. 3. Elleanthus archilae Fig. 4. Elleanthus hymenophorus[ph. F. Archila]
Conservation status. The species is threatened by the destruction of theforests and by illegal collections. Especially as its characteristics can make ita decorative plant.
A new Elleanthus from Guatemala – Archila & Chiron
ReferencesAmes, O. & D.S. Correll, 1952-1953. Orchids of Guatemala. Chicago Natural History Museum, Chicago. 779 pp.Archila, F., 2001. Lepanthes de Guatemala; Monografía del género LepanthesSw. para Guatemala. Revista Guatemalensis Suplemento especial No. 2. 281 pp.Archila, F. & G. Chiron, 2017. Notas taxonòmicas del gènero Elleanthus C. Preslen Mesoamèrica. Revista Guatemalensis Año 20, No 1-2. 147-154.Archila F., D. Szlachetko, G. Chiron, M. Lipińska, V. Bertolini & K.Mystkowska, in press. Orchid genera and species in Guatemala. Koeltz BocanicalBooks. Germany.Barbosa Rodrigues, J., 1882. Genera et Species Orchidearum Novarum quas Collecit,Descripsit et Iconibus Illustravit, vol. 2. Sebastionopolis. 295 pp.Brown, R., 1813. In W.T. Aiton, Hortus Kewensis 5: 206.Dix, M.A. & M.W. Dix, 2000. Orchids of Guatemala. A Revised Annotated Checklist.Missouri Botanical Garden Press. 61 pp.Dudek, M. & D.L. Szlachetko, 2010. New combinations in subtribe Elleanthinae(Orchidaceae, Epidendroideae). Richardiana 11(1): 5.Garay, L.A. & H.R. Sweet, 1972. Notes on West Indian Orchids, II. Journal of theArnold Arboretum 53: 390.Nash, G.V., 1907. Costa Rican Orchids – I. Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 34:119.Neubig, K., M. Whitten, M. Blanco & L. Endara, 2011. Preliminary Molecular Phylogenetics of Sobralia and Relatives (Orchidaceae: Sobralieae). Lankesteteriana 11(3): 307-317.Neubig, K., B.S. Carlsward, M. Whitten & N.H. Williams, 2015. Nectar y structure and nectar in Sobralia and Elleanthus (Sobralieae: Orchidaceae). Lankesteriana 15(2): 113-127.Presl, C., 1827. Orchideae Juss. Reliquiae Haenkeanae 1: 97.Rafinesque, C.S., 1838. Sylva Telluriana. Philadelphia. 184 pp.Reichenbach, H.G.R., 1852. Neue Orchideen der Expedition des HerrnJ. deWarszewicz. Botanische Zeitung 10: 710Reichenbach, H.G.R., 1862. Ordo XXVII. Orchides Juss. Annales Botanicessystematicae 6: 480.Schlechter, R., 1923. Repertorium Specierum Novarum Regni Vegetabilis 19: 164.Szlachetko, D.L., 1991. New Taxa within the Order Orchidales. FoliaGeobotanica & Phytotaxonomica 26(3): 315-329.Van der Cingel, N.A., 2001. An atlas of orchid pollination: America, Africa, Asiaand Australia. A. A. Balkema: The Netherlands.
