Bulbophyllum tricorne
Submitted by rik on Sat, 16/01/2010 - 11:21
Score: 8.7, Votes: 3
Bulbophyllum tricorne Seidenf. & Smitinand, Orch. Thail. (Prelim. List): 806 (1965).
Distribution: Assam to Indo-China.
Originally submitted as:
Bulbophyllum careyanum (Hook.) Spreng., Syst. Veg. 3: 732 (1826).
Distribution: Nepal to Indo-China.
Wellsy and Rik contributed these images.
The following description is based on Gunnar Seidenfaden and Sir Joseph Hooker.
Flowering habit:
Scape: 2-5 cm long with a few purplish sheaths at the base.
Raceme: about 3 cm long; dense, the flowers are tightly packed all around the rhachis.
Bracts: 3-4 mm long, triangular, acute.
Flowers: orange-yellow or greenish base colour, spotted or suffused with red-brown or purple;
the flowers are sometimes almost all blue-purple.(Hooker)
Sepals: Dorsal sepal 7 mm, hooded, with five dark purple veins and a membraneous edge. Lateral sepals 10 mm long, brownish-purple with five darker stripes.
Sir Joseph Hooker: outer surface covered with minute warts; dorsal sepal hooded.
Petals: Petals 3.5 mm long, 1.3 mm wide at the base, yellowish.
Sir Joseph Hooker: small, yellowish, broadly ovate.
Lip: 5mm long, tongue-shaped with a V-shaped longitudinal groove, yellow and red, papillous.
Auricles at the base of the lip: take the form of a hyaline brim ending in a forward directed acute tip. (Seidenfaden)
Column: foot red, with red streaks continuing up the front of the column. Central horizontal horn beneath the stigma.(This is shown in the attached images.)
Stelidia: white-yellowish, bent forwards (at right angles to the line of the column).
Plant
Rhizome: stout, pseudobulbs close together.
Pseudobulbs: glossy, red-brown, globoid-conical, slightly four-angled, 2 to 2.5cm high and nearly as much in diameter.
Leaves: Leaf 10-12 cm long, 2-2.5 cm wide, no distinct petiole.
Bernard (bernabu) has helped with the identification.
Vote Result
Score: 8.7, Votes: 3
careyana section
These two images are supurb and compliment and conform to the description given for this species. One of the features that help identify this species is the central horn which can be clearly seen in the lower flower on the left in the first image and the top left flower in the second image, the horn is located beneath the stigma on the column.
This central horn is not unique to B.careyanum, it is also present in B.tricorne and
B.tricornoides (also in this section) but is not curved downwards as in B.careyanum.
It could well be, that if there is any future work done with the careyana section that
B.tricorne and B.tricornoides could well be made synonymous with B.careyanum.
bernabu
Bulbophyllum tricorne
Hi Bernard,
After looking at your comment I had to re-check Gunnar Seidenfaden's key (Orchid Genera in Thailand VIII - Bulbophyllum, 1979) to make sure that I had not mis-interpreted it.
You mentioned the presence of the central horn beneath the stigma for Bulophyllum careyanum but I cannot see it mentioned in Seidenfaden's key, nor text or illustration (fig. 98). Do you have another reference that mentions this third horn?
These photos look to me to represent Bulbophyllum tricorne as the flower has fat stylids on the end of the column and the third horn. The petals are triangular and about the length of the column. Also, the petals lack the thread-like tips.
Cheers.
Gary
tricorne
Bulbophyllum careyanum http://www.orchidsonline.com.au/node/8469
The image 1074, showing the flower close-up, has been taken in situ on date 29 August 2009. This is in the middle of the wet season.
In northern Thailand, Bulbophyllum careyanum is flowering in January, during the dry season, according to Nantiya Vaddhanaphuti.
I would like to change the name of this node to Bulbophyllum tricorne.
See also http://www.orchidsonline.com.au/node/7788
Bulbophyllum careyanum
Hi Gary
Thanks for your interest and input on this subject. The reference to the 'third horn' that you seek can be found in: 'THE ORCHIDS OF THAILAND' 'A Preliminary List' PART III
By Gunnar Seidenfaden and Tom Smitinand. The Siam Society. Bangkok 1961.
In this publication, page 428, item 88, B.careyanum. In their introduction of this species the authors make the following comment.
"These plants, a sketch of which is given in figure 321, have forward bent column horns characteristic of B.careyanum and fit so well with the description given by WJ Hooker (1.c.) that we feel rather certain about the identification even if we are somewhat puzzled by the fact that the perculiar tooth or horn on the front of the column is not mentioned by earlier authors, our plants may be described as follows".
There then follows the description and the sketch that he refers to, which clearly shows
the tooth/horn underneath the stigma on the front of the column.
I do not have access to his 1979 publication, and am surprised that he doesn't make any reference to this horn/tooth feature that he mentions in his earlier 1961 publication.
regards
Bernard
bernabu
Bulbophyllum tricorne
Hello again Bernard
Unfortunately, I don’t have Gunnar Seidenfaden & Tem Smitinand’s The Orchids of Thailand – A Preliminary List, 1961.
I agree that it’s rather bizarre that Seidenfaden had not mentioned this third horn/tooth in his Notes on Cirrhopetalum, 1979.
After reading your post I had another look at Orchid Genera in Thailand VIII and I think I’ve discovered what has happened.
Under the name Bulbophyllum careyanum, where the list of synonyms and types appears there is the following entry which seems to indicate that he made a mis-identification:
“non Bulbophyllum careyanum Seidenfaden 1961: 428, Fig. 321 (B. tricorne).”
This, hopefully explains what has transpired between the two publications.
Cheers.
Gary
careyanum-tricorne
Gary, many thanks for your clarification on the careyanum ID. I had always intended to obtain Seidenfadens later book 'Notes on Cirrhopetalum 1979' but never got round to it.
Another one sorted well done.
Bernard
bernabu
Gary should make a list of Books he uses for references
So we newbies can try and find them for our collections.
He is doing a great job of educating. Heck!!! This Forum is a great school. I am glad I found it.
My apologies for the hijacking... But I needed to share my happiness with this forum :)