a new oncidium from costa rica

8/10/2019 A New Oncidium From Costa Rica

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LINDLEYANA

A New Oncidium from Costa RicaA Showy Species in the Oncidiinae:Orchidaceae/By Franco Pupulin and Diego Bogarn

176 ORCHIDS MARCH 2012 WWW.AOS.ORG

Franco Pupulin

Diego Bogarn

IN THE LAST 10 YEARS OR SO, WEhave been busy at Lankester Botanical Gar-

den (JBL, the acronym in Spanish for JardnBotnico Lankester) in describing neworchid species fromCosta Rica (and afew from abroad)and reporting newadditions to the richorchid flora of thecountry. Lookingba ck , ou r t ax o-nomic task forcedisclosed to the or-chid world 105 newspecies from Costa

Rica, and more than40 novelties fromother parts of theNeotropics (for areview of the lat-est discoveries, seeBogarn 2011). Thiswould have been

impossible without the continuous supportfrom our university, Universidad de CostaRica, and the personal concern of our vicepresidents of research, who through the lastdecade have strongly propelled develop-

ment of botanical activities at JBL.Of course, most of the orchid novel-ties that emerge from this botanicallywell-explored country are in the rangeof the small things, such as the diminutiveLepanthes (25 species) and other Pleuro-thallidinae (15 species), as well as others ofreduced size (10 species of TelipogonandStellilabium, six species each ofDichaea,Macrocliniumand Trichocentrum, and fivespecies of Sigmatostalix and Oncidium);others are large but have ephemeral flowers(16 species of Sobralia). We also describedsome showy new orchids, such asDracula

inexperata(Pupulin 2001a),Brassia sua-vissima (Pupulin and Bogarn 2005),Chondroscaphe yamilethae(Pupulin 2005),Trichopilia punicea(Dressler and Pupulin2006) and Lycaste bruncana (Bogarn2007), but eye-catching novelties are onlyrarely found because people in Costa Ricahave paid close attention to showy orchidsfor more than two centuries.

In particular, the last species of On-cidiumnew to the Costa Rican flora wasOncidium maduroi, recorded 10 years ago(Pupulin 2001b), and the last species of the

genus described from Costa Rican material,

the distinctive Oncidium imitans, was pub-lished almost 15 years ago (Dressler 1997).It was, therefore, a particularly pleasantsurprise when, in April 2010, a new speciesof Oncidiumopened its showy flowers forthe first time in the research greenhousesof JBL. The plant had been confiscatedfrom an orchid poacher by the officers ofMINAET (the acronym in Spanish for theMinistry of Environment, Energy and Tele-

communications) in July 2009 and was still

[1] Oncidium henning-jenseniiPupulin &

Bogarn. A. Habit. B. Flower. C. Perianth,

flattened. D. Column and lip, lateral view.

E. Column, ventral view. F. Anther cap

and pollinarium. Drawn by the authors

from the holotype.

1

growing on the original trunk (the tree wascut to collect the plant). We describe it hereas new to science as: Oncidium henning-

jenseniiPupulin & Bogarn,sp. nov.


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TYPE Presumably Costa Rica. Pun-tarenas-San Jos: Zona Sur, withoutfurther locality data, a plant confiscatedby MINAET officers along the southernPan-American Highway in the Cerro de

la Muerte region. Flowered in cultivationat Lankester Botanical Garden, Universityof Costa Rica, April 27, 2010,JBL-21878(holotype, CR; isotype, JBL-spirit).

Species Oncidio ansifero Rchb.f. etOncidio stenoglosso Kraenzl. pseudobul-bis similis , sed habito repente floribusmulto majoribus luteis sepalis subbrunneismaculatis (vs. atrobrunneum vel brunneumpunctatum maculatum) et labello magis latointer lobulos laterales; ab Oncidio ansiferopraeterea recedit lobulis lateralibus labellisubflabelliformi-transverse ellipticis et ab

Oncidiio stenobulbo isthmo labelli multolatiore et alis columnae magnis dolabrifor-mis praecipue distinctum est.

Epiphytic, caespitose, repent herb to60 cm tall. Roots slender, flexuous, 1.11.3mm in diameter. Rhizome elongate, repent-ascending, 810 mm thick, producing rootsfrom internodes, the pseudobulbs 4.05.2cm apart. Pseudobulbs ovate-elliptic,smooth, green with yellowish margins,homoblastic, with two to three internodes,strongly ancipitous and flattened, sub-tended at the base by one to two foliaceoussheaths, elliptic, acute, conduplicate, differ-

ent in size, the larger 17.022.0 7.08.0

cm, the smaller 10.014.0 4.56.5 cm,the margins hyaline, articulate with thesheath, often becoming dry-papyraceouswith age; the basal node 12.015.0 6.09.0 cm, the second node obovate,2.22.5 2.22.5 cm, the third node (whenpresent) subreniform, 0.70.9 1.01.2cm. Leaves two to three, narrowly ellipticto lanceolate, conduplicate-subpetiolate,smaller toward the apex of the pseudo-bulb, 13.530.0 4.08.5 cm, constrictedinto a conduplicate petiole up to 2.5 cm

long. Inflorescence basal, one to two per

[2] Oncidium henning-jensenii, a detail of the

inflorescence from the plant that served

as the holotype. The flowers of the new

species are among the largest in Costa

Rica.

[3] Don Henning, for whom Onc. henning-

jenseniiis named.

[4] Oncidium henning-jensenii, flower from

the plant (holotype) flowered in cultivation

at Lankester Botanical Garden, Univer-

sity of Costa Rica, and photographed in

April 2010.

F.PUPUPLIN

F.PUPUPLIN

3 4

2

C

OURTESYOFTHEVICE-PRESIDENCYOFRESEARCH,UNIVERSITYOFCOSTARICA


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the long, paniculate, many-flowered inflo-rescences and the flowers yellow, spottedor stained with red-brown. Among its

relatives, Onc. henning-jensenii differsin its yellow sepals and petals with palebrown blotches at base (vs. dark brown inOnc. ansiferumand with spotted sepals andpetals in Onc. stenobulbon) and the largerfloral segments, with the lip up to 2 cm long(vs. up to 1.3 cm) (see Table 1). The basallobes of its lip are wider and larger, andthe midlobe is retuse without superposedlobes at apex. Oncidium ansiferumis un-mistakable with its dark brown, blotchedsepals and petals with yellow apex, and itslip is distinctly broader across the midlobethan across the small, oblong basal lobes.Oncidium stenobulbon is also similar buthas small column wings, a much narroweristhmus and smaller floral parts.

ReferencesBogarn, D. 2011. How Many Orchid Species in Costa

Rica? A Review of the Latest Discoveries. p. 185205in:A.M. Pridgeon and H.G. Navarrete Zambrano, edi-tors.Proceedings of the Third Scientific Conference ofAndean Orchids, Quito, Ecuador.Lankesteriana11.

_. 2007. A NewLycaste(Orchidaceae: Maxillarieae) fromCosta Rica.Lankesteriana7:543549.

Dressler, R.L. 1997. New Species and Combinations inCosta Rican Orchids.Novon7:120126.

Dressler, R.L., and F. Pupulin. 2006. The Carmine Tricho-pilias of Central America: Few, but Badly Confused.

Lindleyanain Orchids75:212220.Pupulin, F. 2001a. Extending the Range: A South American

Draculain Costa Rica. Orchids80:564567._. 2001b. Presence of the Orchid Oncidium maduroi(Or-

chidaceae:Oncidiinae) in Costa Rica.Revista BiologiaTropical49:12611262.

_. 2005. Vanishing Beauty. Native Costa Rican Orchids,vol. 1:Acianthera-Kegeliella. Editorial de la Universi-dad de Costa Rica, San Jos.

Pupulin, F., and D. Bogarn. 2005. The GenusBrassiainCosta Rica: A Survey of Four Species and a New Spe-cies.Lindleyanain Orchids74:202207.

AcknowledgmentsWe thank the scientific services of Ministerio

del Ambiente, Energa y Telecomunicaciones deCosta Rica (MINAET) and Sistema Nacional de

reas de Conservacin (SINAC) for issuing the

scientific passports under which this researchwas conducted and for bringing to JBL the plantconfiscated. The review by M.W. Chase and his

accurate observations greatly improved the manu-script. This paper is part of the Project 814-A7-015,Inventario y taxonoma de la flora epfita de laregin Neotropical Orchidaceae, sponsoredby the vice-presidency of research, University ofCosta Rica.

Franco Pupulin is a senior research profes-sor at the University of Costa Rica, wherehe works as director of research with Lank-ester Botanical Garden. He is especially

Table 1: Comparison of characteristics of the different taxa.

Character Onc. ansiferum Onc. stenobulbon Onc. henning-jensenii

Color of sepals Blotched dark Spotted pale Blotched pale

and petals brown brown brown

Petals 15 7 mm 13 5 mm 17 9 mm

Lateral lobes Oblong, Transversely Subflabelli form-

of lip 4 3 mm elliptic, 4 4 mm transversely elliptic,

9 7 mm

Isthmus 5 4 mm 6 3 mm 11 9 mm

Across basal lobes 12 mm 15 mm 25 mm

of lip

Callus 5 4 mm 5 3 mm 7 6 mm

Midlobe in natural Superposed Superposed Spread, flat

position

Column wings 2 4 mm 1 2 mm 3 5 mm

Interested in the systematics and evolutionof advanced orchid groups in subtribesOncidiinae, Pleurothallidinae and Zy-gopetalinae. Pupulin is working on severalmonographic and floristic projects on Neo-tropical orchid floras. Author of more than170 scientific articles and several books onthe orchids of the Mesoamerican region, heis a research associate of the Oakes AmesOrchid Herbarium at Harvard Universityand the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens,Sarasota, Florida, and the director ofthe ngel Andreetta Research Center onAndean Orchids of the University AlfredoPrez Guerrero, Ecuador. (email [email protected]).

Diego Bogarin is interested in theevolution and systematics of NeotropicalOrchidaceae. He is developing floristicprojects for conservation in Costa Rica andPanama and has participated in projectson DNA barcoding and orchid conserva-tion with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.He is an orchid taxonomist at LankesterBotanical Garden and research associateof the Angel Andreetta Research Center onAndean Orchids of the University AlfredoPerez Guerrero, Ecuador. Bogarn haspublished a number of scientific papers onthe orchid flora of Costa Rica and otherNeotropical regions. (email [email protected]).

a new oncidium from costa rica

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