Lecanorchis taiwaniana Ying (1987: 133)

Suetsugu, Kenji, Hsu, Tian-Chuan, Fukunaga, Hirokazu & Sawa, Shinichiro, 2016, Epitypification, emendation and synonymy of Lecanorchis taiwaniana (Vanilleae, Vanilloideae, Orchidaceae), Phytotaxa 265 (2), pp. 157-163 : 157-163

Lecanorchis taiwaniana Ying (1987: 133) ; Ying (1990: 235); emend. Suetsugu, T.C. Hsu, S. Sawa, & Fukunaga ( Figs. 1–2 )

Type: — TAIWAN. New Taipei: Wulai District , Chia-ku-lin to Chia-ku-liao, 780 m, 2 August 1987, S. S. Ying s. n. (holotype: NTUFF00000200 !; isotype: NTUF-F00008292 !) .

Epitype: — TAIWAN. New Taipei: Wulai District, Pataoerhshan , ca. 1,000 m, 15 August 2009, T. C. Hsu 2259 ( TAIF!), here designated. Synonym: — Lecanorchis amethystea Sawa et al. (2006: 123) ; Hsu & Kuo (2010: 366), syn. nov. Type: JAPAN. Kochi: Muroto cape, 160

m, 26 July 1987, Sawa SC-1702 (holotype: TI!, isotype: MBK!).

Emended description: — Terrestrial, mycoheterotrophic herb. Inflorescence 15–45 cm tall, solitary or branched at lower half, yellowish white at flowering, brownish black at fruiting, glabrous, ca. 0.8–1.5 mm in diam., with scalelike sheaths. Rachis (2–) 6–15 cm, 4–20 flowered, internodes 5–15 mm apart. Floral bracts deltoid, 1.5–2.0 mm long, ca. 1.0– 1.3 mm wide. Pedicellate ovary ascending, 15–20 mm long. Flowers widely opening, ca. 2.5 cm in diameter. Sepals yellowish white, sometimes tinged with light-purple, linear, slightly narrower on lower halves, 12–16 mm long, 1.8–2.5(–3) mm wide, apex obtuse, 3-nerved. Petals yellowish white, linear, slightly oblique, 13–16 mm long, 2.0–2.5(–2.9) mm wide, apex obtuse, 3-nerved. Lip white tinged with purple toward apex, spatulate, 14–15 mm long, 6–7 mm wide when flattened, slightly 3-lobed, side lobes erect with purplish multicellular hairs at apex, and whitish papillose at base. Column 11–13 mm long, slightly curved, fused with lip about 3/5–2/3 its length, ventrally puberulent; anther whitish, ca. 1.2 mm wide. Capsule, 20–30 mm long, bright brown, ascending at 20–45°angle from axis.

Distribution: — Taiwan and Japan.

Additional specimens examined: — TAIWAN. New Taipei: Sanxia District, Mt. Chulu , 800–1,200 m, 11 Sep 2010, Hsu 3180 ( TAIF!) ; Wulai District, Mt. Ayu, West Peak , ca. 900 m, 18 January 2005, Chung 8297 ( TAIF!) ; 15 July 2009, Hsu 2250 ( TAIF!) ; Wulai District, Fushan Botanical Garden , ca. 600 m, 15 July 2009, Hsu 2252 ( TAIF!) , JAPAN. Okinawa Pref., Kunigami gun, Kunigami son, around Mt. Yonaha , ca. 460 m, Fukunaga & Abe 386 ( RYU!) ; Shikoku District, Kochi Pref., Muroto city, Muroto cape, ca. 160 m, 29 August 2000, Fukunaga & Sawa 2 ( MBK!) ; Shikoku District, Kochi Pref., Muroto city, Muroto cape, ca. 160 m, 29 August 2000, Fukunaga & Sawa 4 ( MBK!) ; Shikoku District, Kochi Pref., Muroto city, Muroto cape, ca. 160 m, 29 August 2000, Fukunaga & Sawa 7 ( MBK!) ; Shikoku District, Kochi Pref., Muroto city, Muroto cape, 27 October 1987, Sawa 1863 ( MBK!) ; Shikoku District, Kochi Pref., Muroto city, Muroto cape, 27 Oct. 1987, Sawa 1864 ( MBK!) ; Shikoku District, Kochi Pref., Muroto city, Muroto cape, 27 October 1987, Sawa 1869 ( MBK!) .

Taxonomic notes: — Lecanorchis taiwaniana was treated as a synonym of L. nigricans in previous studies ( Su 2000, Chen et al. 2009) mainly because of its light-purplish, indistinctly 3-lobed lips, which were only known from L. nigricans in the genus. However, Sawa et al. (2006) have clearly demonstrated that there are indeed two species sharing such lip structure, although they overlooked the name L. taiwaniana and described the second species as L. amethystea . Later, Hsu & Chung (2010) also recorded L. amethystea as a newly recorded species of Taiwan, overlooking L. taiwaniana . As already stated by Sawa et al. (2006), Hsu & Chung (2010) and Lin et al. (2016), L. taiwaniana can be clearly distinguished from L. nigricans by a combination of several characteristics, including the longer peduncles, rachis, and internodes, as well as the yellowish white, narrower sepals and petals, the slightly 3-lobed labellum, the bright brown, ascending capsules, the column that’s more than half fused with the labellum, the pubescence at the base of the column, and paler rachis coloration. A detailed comparison is presented in Table 1.

In addition, although Ying (1987) described the apical part of the adaxial labellum surface in L. taiwaniana as glabrous, this statement is incorrect since the line drawing later published by the same author ( Ying 1990) and our newly discovered materials both showed that the apical part of the adaxial labellum surface in L. taiwaniana actually has purplish multicellular hairs. Su (2000), who possibly studied the type specimens of L. taiwaniana when the flowers were still preserved, also noted that the lips were pubescent.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Holotype of Lecanorchis taiwaniana deposited in NTUF.

FIGURE 2. Photographs of Lecanorchis taiwaniana in Taiwan (A & C from T.C. Hsu 2259; B from on S.W. Chung 8297). A. Flowering habit. B. Fruiting habit. C. Flower.