Pendusalpinx Karremans & Mel.Fernández, 2018

Bogarín, Diego, Karremans, Adam P. & Fernández, Melania, 2018, Genus-level taxonomical changes in the Lepanthes affinity (Orchidaceae, Pleurothallidinae), Phytotaxa 340 (2), pp. 128-136 : 131-132

Pendusalpinx Karremans & Mel.Fernández , gen. nov.

Type: Pleurothallis berlineri Luer (1976: 60) . Synonym: Trichosalpinx berlineri ( Luer 1976: 60) Luer (1983:394) .

Diagnosis:— Pendusalpinx is sister to genus Lankesteriana , but can be immediately distinguished by the large, up to 30 cm tall, pendulous plants (vs. short, less than 3 cm tall, erect), with ramicauls longer than or similar to the leaf (vs. much shorter than the leaf), covered by large, lepanthiform bracts (bract inconspicuous, not lepanthiform), the glaucous leaves twisted at the base (vs. green, straight), the pendent inflorescence, shorter than the leaf, with several flowers open at once (vs. erect to arching, longer than the leaf, with one flower open at a time), the petals are triangular to elliptic (vs. generally lanceolate), and the lip flat (vs. with a deep mid-line depression). Species of Pendusalpinx are superficially more similar to Trichosalpinx , but can be distinguished by the pendulous plants, the ramicauls covered by conspicuous, whitish bracts (vs. smaller, brown bracts), the glaucous leaves, pendent, basally twisted (vs. green, erect, straight) leaves, and a pair of broad angled wings above the middle of the column (vs. without broad angled wings above the middle).

Comments:— The genus includes six species that are distributed from Colombia and Venezuela to Bolivia and Peru. They are not present in Central America, the Antilles and Brazil. The recognition of the novel genus Pendusalpinx is highly supported in our analyses, the accessions of several of its species consistently formed a highly supported clade ( Fig. 1 ) (PP=1.0), sister to Lankesteriana ( Fig. 1 ) (PP=1.0), as was previously found by Karremans (2014) and Pérez-Escobar et al. (2017). The two genera are highly supported, genetically well separated and morphologically distinct in virtually every aspect. Pendusalpinx species share several features with Trichosalpinx , nevertheless, they are consistently found sister to Lankesteriana instead. The two genera are here highly supported as sisters of Trichosalpinx in the strict sense, nevertheless, such a relationship has not been found in previous DNA based studies, and in the interest of stability and definability they are recognized as distinct.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Phylogenetic analysis based on Bayesian inference of the Lepanthes affinity (nrITS and plastid matK sequences) from more than one-hundred different species, taken from Bogarín et al.(in prep.).Terminals ending in triangles represent genera with multiple species and single terminals are monospecific genera (Draconanthes, Frondaria, Gravendeelia, Opilionanthe and Stellamaris). Photographs: A, B, D, F, J–K, L–N by D. Bogarín; C by S. Vieira-Uribe; E by Ecuagenera; G, H, I by W. Driessen.