Loefgrenianthus
Encyclopedia
Loefgrenianthus blanche-amesiae is a showy orchid species, inhabitant of Serra do Mar
mountains in Brazil
ian southeast. It is the only species of the monotypic
genus Loefgrenianthus. It can be differentiated from its closest genus, Leptotes
, both because of its pending vegetation with flat leaves
and the flower
s which have a saccate labellum
. Loefgrenianthus blanche-amesiae is highly appreciated by orchid collectors.
States of Brazil, particularly in Serra da Mantiqueira and Serra do Mar
chains of mountains, where it is very rare. It grows under the shadow of tree
s in shady, humid and well ventilated woods, between 1,000 and 2,200 meters of altitude
on mountains slopes. It ordinarily grows at middle height, pending from thick stem
s, mostly of Podocarpus
and Araucaria
species, despite there are records of plants occasionally growing in thin branch
es too.
The culture of Loefgrenianthus blanche-amesiae is reportedly hard. Because of its pending habit it should be mounted on a vegetable fiber plaque or on a piece of bark and kept sheltered form straight sunlight
in a cool, humid and well ventilated place.
Loefgrenianthus blanche-amesiae usually are attached to their hosts' stems by a knot of thin pinkish few branched elongated strong root
s that grow mostly at the base of their stems. Adventitious roots are uncommon and possibly grow just occasionally when the stems become very long. The stems are thin, flexible and pending, formed by a simple but occasionally bifurcating elongated rhyzome, and tiny pseudobulbs. The rhizome is completely covered by thin dried imbricating steaths and, after three internodes, usually gives birth to a pseudobulb always hidden by a dried narrow steath. The pseudobulbs are spaced at one centimeter intervals and have only one apical flat, but folded at the base, elliptical lanceolated and comparetively large leaf. The leaves last for some years and normally there are about seven pseudobulbs with leaves at the end of the stem. The older leaves at the base of the stem fall so the older segments of the plant usually are formed just by a number of bare stems and the important roots to attach the plant to the stem, occasionally showing a new growth. The inflorescence
s shoot from the apexes of the last one or two pseudobulbs and are apical, short and pending, bearing just one flower which faces the ground.
The flowers are comparatively large in relation to the plant size, with segments that do not completely open. The petal
s and sepal
s are white and oblong, the sepals slightly larger than the petals, sometimes with the apexes reflected. The petals are similar to the sepals but slightly narrower at the base. The labellum is strong yellow margined of bright purple; at the base it is fused to the column
base forming a narrow spur shaped nectary; it is internally slightly pubescent and has a thick callus that splits in five digitate keels on the disk; the central lobe is partially saccate and has two longer fringes at the apex. The column is white almost cylindrical without any appendages. The anther, contrasting to the flower, is very bright purple, apical, bearing six pollinia, four small and two large, hold by a caudicle similar to the ones of Leptotes.
Loefgrenianthus blanche-amesiae blooms between the middle of the spring
and early summer
and the flowers last for about a week. Its pollinators are unknown, however, because of its color, they may be night moths, or bee
s due to the flowers structure.
of Minas Gerais
State, painting watercolors of plants and was a director of Rio de Janeiro Botanic Garden. In 1896 while looking for new specimens on Serra da Mantiqueira, in Rio de Janeiro, he came across a small plant the did not recognize. At the time the Belgian Botanist Célestin Alfred Cogniaux was working on the noted Flora Brasiliensis
of Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius
, an encyclopedia that described all plant species of Brazil known at the time. Therefore, trying to establish its identity, Loefgren sent the plant he found to Cogniaux, however, the specimen got lost and was never recovered.
In 1915 the professor Oakes Ames, botanist responsible for the herbarium
of Harvard University
, and his wife Blanche were traveling in Brazil and met Loefgren. Together they accidentally found again, on the slopes of Itatiaia mountain, another specimen of the plant which had been lost almost ten years before. This time Loefgren decided to describe the species himself and considering it close to Leptotes placed it under this genus with the name Leptotes blanche-amesiae in homage to professor Ames wife. In 1827, a later work on the genus Leptotes by Frederico Carlos Hoehne led him to conclude that this species, despite being closely related to it, would be better placed in another genus, therefore he proposed the genus Loefgrenianthus, in reference to Loefgren who, besides discovering the species twice, had described it.
According to Cássio van den Berg, who studied their phylogeny, Loefgrenianthus is closely related to Leptotes
and both form a sister clade to another small clade that includes Pseudolaelia
, Constantia
and Isabellia. The two clades constitute Isabellia alliance, which is one of the eight clades of subtribus Laeliinae
.
Serra do Mar
Serra do Mar is a 1,500 km long system of mountain ranges and escarpments in Southeastern Brazil, which runs in parallel to the Atlantic Ocean coast from the state of Espírito Santo to southern Santa Catarina, although some include Serra Geral in the Serra do Mar, in which case this range...
mountains in Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
ian southeast. It is the only species of the monotypic
Monotypic
In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group with only one biological type. The term's usage differs slightly between botany and zoology. The term monotypic has a separate use in conservation biology, monotypic habitat, regarding species habitat conversion eliminating biodiversity and...
genus Loefgrenianthus. It can be differentiated from its closest genus, Leptotes
Leptotes (orchid)
Leptotes, abbreviated Lpt in horticultural trade, is a genus of orchids formed by nine small species that grow in the dry jungles of south and southeast Brazil, and also in Paraguay or Argentina...
, both because of its pending vegetation with flat leaves
Leaf
A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....
and the flower
Flower
A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...
s which have a saccate labellum
Labellum
Labellum is the Latin diminutive of labium, meaning lip. These are anatomical terms used descriptively in biology, for example in Entomology and botany.-Botany:...
. Loefgrenianthus blanche-amesiae is highly appreciated by orchid collectors.
Distribution and habit
Loefgrenianthus blanche-amesiae is a small epiphytic species which inhabits the highest areas of Atlantic Forest of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and ParanáParaná (state)
Paraná is one of the states of Brazil, located in the South of the country, bordered on the north by São Paulo state, on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, on the south by Santa Catarina state and the Misiones Province of Argentina, and on the west by Mato Grosso do Sul and the republic of Paraguay,...
States of Brazil, particularly in Serra da Mantiqueira and Serra do Mar
Serra do Mar
Serra do Mar is a 1,500 km long system of mountain ranges and escarpments in Southeastern Brazil, which runs in parallel to the Atlantic Ocean coast from the state of Espírito Santo to southern Santa Catarina, although some include Serra Geral in the Serra do Mar, in which case this range...
chains of mountains, where it is very rare. It grows under the shadow of tree
Tree
A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...
s in shady, humid and well ventilated woods, between 1,000 and 2,200 meters of altitude
Altitude
Altitude or height is defined based on the context in which it is used . As a general definition, altitude is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum and a point or object. The reference datum also often varies according to the context...
on mountains slopes. It ordinarily grows at middle height, pending from thick stem
Plant stem
A stem is one of two main structural axes of a vascular plant. The stem is normally divided into nodes and internodes, the nodes hold buds which grow into one or more leaves, inflorescence , conifer cones, roots, other stems etc. The internodes distance one node from another...
s, mostly of Podocarpus
Podocarpus
Podocarpus is a genus of conifers, the most numerous and widely distributed of the podocarp family Podocarpaceae. The 105 species of Podocarpus are evergreen shrubs or trees from 1-25 m in height...
and Araucaria
Araucaria
Araucaria is a genus of evergreen coniferous trees in the family Araucariaceae. There are 19 extant species in the genus, with a highly disjunct distribution in New Caledonia , Norfolk Island, eastern Australia, New Guinea, Argentina, Chile, and southern Brazil.-Description:Araucaria are mainly...
species, despite there are records of plants occasionally growing in thin branch
Branch
A branch or tree branch is a woody structural member connected to but not part of the central trunk of a tree...
es too.
The culture of Loefgrenianthus blanche-amesiae is reportedly hard. Because of its pending habit it should be mounted on a vegetable fiber plaque or on a piece of bark and kept sheltered form straight sunlight
Sunlight
Sunlight, in the broad sense, is the total frequency spectrum of electromagnetic radiation given off by the Sun. On Earth, sunlight is filtered through the Earth's atmosphere, and solar radiation is obvious as daylight when the Sun is above the horizon.When the direct solar radiation is not blocked...
in a cool, humid and well ventilated place.
Description
| Measures (mm) | ||
| Structure | Length | Width |
| Rhizome | 10 | 1 |
| Leaf | 30 | 5 |
| Pseudobulb | 2 | 1 |
| Inflorescence | 10 | 1 |
| Flower | 20 | 20 |
| Sepal | 8 | 3 |
| Petal | 7 | 3 |
| Labellum | 7 | 3 |
Loefgrenianthus blanche-amesiae usually are attached to their hosts' stems by a knot of thin pinkish few branched elongated strong root
Root
In vascular plants, the root is the organ of a plant that typically lies below the surface of the soil. This is not always the case, however, since a root can also be aerial or aerating . Furthermore, a stem normally occurring below ground is not exceptional either...
s that grow mostly at the base of their stems. Adventitious roots are uncommon and possibly grow just occasionally when the stems become very long. The stems are thin, flexible and pending, formed by a simple but occasionally bifurcating elongated rhyzome, and tiny pseudobulbs. The rhizome is completely covered by thin dried imbricating steaths and, after three internodes, usually gives birth to a pseudobulb always hidden by a dried narrow steath. The pseudobulbs are spaced at one centimeter intervals and have only one apical flat, but folded at the base, elliptical lanceolated and comparetively large leaf. The leaves last for some years and normally there are about seven pseudobulbs with leaves at the end of the stem. The older leaves at the base of the stem fall so the older segments of the plant usually are formed just by a number of bare stems and the important roots to attach the plant to the stem, occasionally showing a new growth. The inflorescence
Inflorescence
An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Strictly, it is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed and which is accordingly modified...
s shoot from the apexes of the last one or two pseudobulbs and are apical, short and pending, bearing just one flower which faces the ground.
The flowers are comparatively large in relation to the plant size, with segments that do not completely open. The petal
Petal
Petals are modified leaves that surround the reproductive parts of flowers. They often are brightly colored or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. Together, all of the petals of a flower are called a corolla. Petals are usually accompanied by another set of special leaves called sepals lying...
s and sepal
Sepal
A sepal is a part of the flower of angiosperms . Collectively the sepals form the calyx, which is the outermost whorl of parts that form a flower. Usually green, sepals have the typical function of protecting the petals when the flower is in bud...
s are white and oblong, the sepals slightly larger than the petals, sometimes with the apexes reflected. The petals are similar to the sepals but slightly narrower at the base. The labellum is strong yellow margined of bright purple; at the base it is fused to the column
Column (botany)
The column, or technically the gynostemium, is a reproductive structure that can be found in several plant families: Aristolochiaceae, Orchidaceae, and Stylidiaceae....
base forming a narrow spur shaped nectary; it is internally slightly pubescent and has a thick callus that splits in five digitate keels on the disk; the central lobe is partially saccate and has two longer fringes at the apex. The column is white almost cylindrical without any appendages. The anther, contrasting to the flower, is very bright purple, apical, bearing six pollinia, four small and two large, hold by a caudicle similar to the ones of Leptotes.
Loefgrenianthus blanche-amesiae blooms between the middle of the spring
Spring (season)
Spring is one of the four temperate seasons, the transition period between winter and summer. Spring and "springtime" refer to the season, and broadly to ideas of rebirth, renewal and regrowth. The specific definition of the exact timing of "spring" varies according to local climate, cultures and...
and early summer
Summer
Summer is the warmest of the four temperate seasons, between spring and autumn. At the summer solstice, the days are longest and the nights are shortest, with day-length decreasing as the season progresses after the solstice...
and the flowers last for about a week. Its pollinators are unknown, however, because of its color, they may be night moths, or bee
Bee
Bees are flying insects closely related to wasps and ants, and are known for their role in pollination and for producing honey and beeswax. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamily Apoidea, presently classified by the unranked taxon name Anthophila...
s due to the flowers structure.
Taxonomic notes
The Danish Botanist Johan Albert Constantin Loefgren lived many years in Brazil where he was studying the floraFlora
Flora is the plant life occurring in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring or indigenous—native plant life. The corresponding term for animals is fauna.-Etymology:...
of Minas Gerais
Minas Gerais
Minas Gerais is one of the 26 states of Brazil, of which it is the second most populous, the third richest, and the fourth largest in area. Minas Gerais is the Brazilian state with the largest number of Presidents of Brazil, the current one, Dilma Rousseff, being one of them. The capital is the...
State, painting watercolors of plants and was a director of Rio de Janeiro Botanic Garden. In 1896 while looking for new specimens on Serra da Mantiqueira, in Rio de Janeiro, he came across a small plant the did not recognize. At the time the Belgian Botanist Célestin Alfred Cogniaux was working on the noted Flora Brasiliensis
Flora Brasiliensis
Flora Brasiliensis is a book published between 1840 and 1906 by the editors Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius, August Wilhelm Eichler, Ignatz Urban and many others...
of Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius
Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius
Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius was a German botanist and explorer.Martius was born at Erlangen, where he graduated M.D. in 1814, publishing as his thesis a critical catalogue of plants in the botanic garden of the university...
, an encyclopedia that described all plant species of Brazil known at the time. Therefore, trying to establish its identity, Loefgren sent the plant he found to Cogniaux, however, the specimen got lost and was never recovered.
In 1915 the professor Oakes Ames, botanist responsible for the herbarium
Herbarium
In botany, a herbarium – sometimes known by the Anglicized term herbar – is a collection of preserved plant specimens. These specimens may be whole plants or plant parts: these will usually be in a dried form, mounted on a sheet, but depending upon the material may also be kept in...
of Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, and his wife Blanche were traveling in Brazil and met Loefgren. Together they accidentally found again, on the slopes of Itatiaia mountain, another specimen of the plant which had been lost almost ten years before. This time Loefgren decided to describe the species himself and considering it close to Leptotes placed it under this genus with the name Leptotes blanche-amesiae in homage to professor Ames wife. In 1827, a later work on the genus Leptotes by Frederico Carlos Hoehne led him to conclude that this species, despite being closely related to it, would be better placed in another genus, therefore he proposed the genus Loefgrenianthus, in reference to Loefgren who, besides discovering the species twice, had described it.
According to Cássio van den Berg, who studied their phylogeny, Loefgrenianthus is closely related to Leptotes
Leptotes (orchid)
Leptotes, abbreviated Lpt in horticultural trade, is a genus of orchids formed by nine small species that grow in the dry jungles of south and southeast Brazil, and also in Paraguay or Argentina...
and both form a sister clade to another small clade that includes Pseudolaelia
Pseudolaelia
Pseudolaelia is a small genus belonging to the orchid family . The abbreviation used in the horticultural trade is Pdla.- Description :...
, Constantia
Constantia (orchid)
Constantia is a genus of flowering plants from the orchid family, Orchidaceae.- References :*Pridgeon, A.M., Cribb, P.J., Chase, M.A. & Rasmussen, F. eds. . Genera Orchidacearum 1. Oxford Univ. Press....
and Isabellia. The two clades constitute Isabellia alliance, which is one of the eight clades of subtribus Laeliinae
Laeliinae
Laeliinae is a Neotropical subtribe including 40 orchid genera, such as Brassavola, Laelia, Sophronitis, and Cattleya. The genus Epidendrum is the largest within this subtribe, containing about 1500 species...
.