Phragmipedium × talamancanum Pupulin & M.Díaz, 2018

Pupulin, Franco & Díaz-Morales, Melissa, 2018, On the meaning of Cypripedium × grande (Orchidaceae) and its taxonomic history, with a new name for the nothospecies occurring in Costa Rica and Panama, Phytotaxa 382 (2), pp. 167-181 : 177-179

Phragmipedium × talamancanum Pupulin & M.Díaz , nothosp. nov.

Type:— COSTA RICA: Puntarenas, Coto Brus, vicinities of the Panamian border, epiphytic on fallen tree, legit C. H. Lankester & J. M. Lankester Hawker , 1945, cultivated at the Lankester Botanical Garden , University of Costa Rica , accession no. JBL-17839 (holotype, JBL; isotypes, JBL, USJ). Fig. 7–9 .

Nothospecies habito magno foliis longitudinem inflorescentiae aequantibus quia P. longifolio (Warsz. ex Rchb.f.) Pfitz. , floribus petalis magis qui plerumque illos P. humboldtii (Warsz.) J.T.Atwood & Dressler accedunt, labello rubello lobuli lateralis parvis munito inter duas species intermedio agnota est.

An epiphytic, fan shaped plant up to 45 cm tall. Leaves to 9, ensiform, acute, coriaceous, mid-green, 19.5–47.0 × 2.0– 4.5 cm. Inflorescence erect to gently arching, shorter than the leaves, unbranched, successively flowered, 23–30 cm long; peduncle terete, dark green, up to 20 cm long, enclosed in the mid-portion by an ovate, conduplicate, loose, glumaceous-fibrose, green bract, 11.0–11.5 × 2.0– 2.5 cm. Floral bracts conduplicate, ovate, acute, loose, glumaceous-fibrose, green, 3.5–5.3 × 1.0– 1.5 cm. Pedicel and ovary 85–112 × 4.0– 4.5 mm, green, arcuate to almost pendent, finely white pubescent. Flowers with green sepals becoming dark red on the distal half, purple petals with green on the base; lip pale green on the base, suffused with vivid reddish-brown on the frontal part, spotted with dark red and green on the folds; the column pale yellow, with a reddish-purple staminode. Dorsal sepal ovate, obtuse, 8.3–9.7 × 0.9–1.5 cm, 12-veined, the veins dark red, crenate, convex, bending frontward. Synsepal broadly ovate, obtuse, convex, longer than the lip, 7.8–9.5 × 2.5–3.7 cm, 21-veined, the veins green to pale red. Petals linear, obtuse, 28.0–30.5 × 1.2–1.6 cm at the base, ca. 0.2 cm broad at apex, covered with purple trichomes on the base of the adaxial surface, densely covered with minute trichomes on the apex of the adaxial surface. Lip 3-lobed, 5.0–5.7 × 2.0– 2.5 cm, the lateral lobes infolded, flat, the mid lobe calceolate, auriculate, the rim truncate. Column 10 mm long; the staminode deltoid, approx. 6.5 × 11.0 mm, with purple trichomes on the margins of the lateral lobes; stigma 7.5–8.0 mm long, partially hidden by the staminode, covered by small papillae, the base pubescent. Anthers 2.5–3.0 mm long, bilocular. Pollinia masses granulose, 1.3–1.6 mm long.

Other specimens seen:— COSTA RICA: Puntarenas, Coto Brus, vicinities of the Panamanian border, epiphytic on fallen tree, legunt C. H. Lankester & J. M. Lankester Hawker, 1945, cultivated at the Lankester Botanical Garden, accession no. JBL-07521 ( JBL) ( Fig. 10D ). Without locality data, cultivated at the Lankester Botanical Garden, accession no. JBL-05820 ( JBL); accession no. JBL-05822 ( JBL); accession no. JBL-05783 (photograph, Fig. 10A ); accession no. JBL-05787 (photograph, Fig. 10C ); accession no. JBL-06911 (photograph, Fig. 10B ); accession no. JBL-05826 (illustration).

Distribution:— Costa Rica and Panama (fide Dressler 2005).

Etymology:—the toponymic epithet refers to the Talamanca mountain chain ( Cordillera de Talamanca ), forming part of the continental divide of central and southern Costa Rica and western Panama, where the nothospecies has been recorded in natural conditions.

This is the nothospecies resulting from the cross of Phragmipedium longifolium and P. humboldtii . Naturally ocurring specimens are known from Costa Rica and Panama. The same parental species gave rise to the grex Phragmipedium Wössner Supergrande.

According to a conversation between Leon Glicenstein and Dorothy Lankester (L. Glicenstein, pers. comm.; Díaz-Morales & Pupulin, in prep.), several if not all the specimens of P. × talamancanum still grown at the Lankester Botanical Garden are divisions of a plant originally collected by Charles H. Lankester and his son John M. Lankester Hawker, around 1945, in southern Costa Rica, growing epiphytically on a fallen tree close to the Panamanian border ( Fig. 8–9 ). As the only two true records of P. humboldtii for Costa Rica are weak (both probably from cultivated specimens), the record of the natural hybrid produced by this species with P. longifolium is perhaps the strongest available evidence of P. humboldtii in the flora of Costa Rica.

Figures

FIGURE 7. Phragmipedium × talamancanum. A: habit. B: flower. C: dorsal sepal. D: synsepal. E: left petal. F: lip. G: column and lip, lateral view. H: column, lateral view. I: column, frontal view. Drawing by Sara Poltronieri from the holotype.

FIGURE 8. Phragmipedium × talamancanum. Lankester Digital Composite Plate prepared from the holotype.

FIGURE 10. Different specimens of Phragmipedium × talamancanum. A: Without locality data, JBL-05783. B: Without locality data, JBL-06911. C: Without locality data, JBL-05787. D: Costa Rica. Puntarenas: Coto Brus, vicinities of the Panamanian border, epiphytic on fallen tree, legunt C. H. Lankester & J. M. Lankester Hawker, 1945, JBL-07521.