Microchilus rotundifolius (Ormerod) E.C.Smidt & M.W.Chase 2021

Photo by Alexander Hirtz

TYPE Drawing of Kreodanthus rotundifolius

TYPE Drawing of Kreodanthus rotundifolius by Paul Ormerod and Harvard Pap. Bot. 9: 393 fig 4 Ormerod 2005

LATE

Common Name The Rotund Leaved Microchilus

Flower Size .12" [3 mm]

Found in Amazonas department of Peru under dense undergrowth in moderately dense fore at elevations of 1860 to 2000 meters as a miniature to small sized, cool growing terrestrial with a terete rhizome giving rise to an erect, terete stem carrying 3 to 4, rosulate, suborbicular, acute, margins undulate, velvety dark green above, matte midgreen below, petiolate base leaves that blooms in the late summer and early fall on an erect, terminal, pubescent, 10.2" [25.5 cm] long, peduncle 6" [15 cm] long, provided with 2, scattered, acute sheathing bracts, rachis 4.2" [10.5 cm] long, laxly 14 flowered inflorescence with ovate-lanceolate, acute, just shorter than the the ovary floral bracts and carrying sparsely externally pubescent flowers with the sepals mid yellow-green, a lip with white at the tip and yellow green below.

"The new species is most similar to some species from the former genus Aspidogyne, such as Microchilus colombianus and M siberianus I thought that the pollinarium of A. rotundifolia had two ellipsoid viscidia but it now seems to me that the actual viscidium was missing. The two ellipsoid bodies observed appear to be modified tegula (an organ equivalent to the stipes of the Aerides, but with a rostellar origin). Similar ellipsoid tegula occur in Microchilus debilis and M schlechteriana . Ormerod 2008

Synonyms Aspidogyne rotundifolia (Ormerod) Ormerod 2008; *Kreodanthus rotundifolius Ormerod 2005

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

* Harvard Pap. Bot. 9: 394 Ormerod 2005 as Kreodanthus rotundifolius;

Harvard Pap. Bot. 9: 393 fig 4 Ormerod 2005 as Kreoidanthus rotundifolius drawing fide;

Harvard Pap. Bot. 13: 58 Ormerod 2008 as Aspidogyne rotundifolia

Materials to the Orchid Flora of Colombia Vol 1: 415 Szlachetko & Kolanowska 2017 as Aspidogyne rotundifolia drawing fide;

Materials to the Orchid Flora of Colombia Vol 1: 546 pl 121 Szlachetko & Kolanowska 2017 as Aspidogyne rotundifolia photo fide

* Bot. J. Linn. Soc. 197: 343 E.C.Smidt & M.W.Chase 2021

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