Phaius tancarvilleae (Banks) Blume

  • Authority

    Ackerman, James D. 1995. An orchid flora of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 73: 1-203.

  • Family

    Orchidaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Phaius tancarvilleae (Banks) Blume

  • Description

    Species Description - Plants caespitose, glabrous terrestrials to 1.4 m tall. Roots fleshy, numerous. Stems cormose pseudobulbs, fleshy, erect, the older green and exposed, the younger concealed by leaf sheaths, 3-8 cm tall, 1-3.5 cm diam. Leaves 2-8, blades articulate with sheaths, thin, plicate, elliptic, lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, acute to acuminate, 3-12 dm long, 5-25 cm wide. Inflorescences lateral from base of pseudobulb, erect; peduncle to 40 cm long or more with few green bracts; raceme many-flowered; floral bracts whitish green, lanceolate to ovate, 3-4.5 cm long, 1-2.5 cm wide. Flowers resupinate, nodding, showy. Pedicellate ovary 4-5 cm long. Sepals white dorsally, yellow-brown ventrally, free, spreading, oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, 6.0-6.3 cm long, 16-18 mm wide. Petals colored as sepals, free, spreading, narrowly elliptic, acuminate, 5.9-6.2 cm long, ca. 16 mm wide. Lip trilobed, 5.1 cm long, 4.5 cm wide, spur yellow, shallowly bifid, 7 mm long; lateral lobes suffused maroon and dark at front margin, rounded, cuneate, convolute over column; midlobe suffused maroon, oblong, rounded apiculate, 19 mm long and wide; disc white and spotted maroon, with a longitudinally winged callus 2.3 cm long, 7 mm wide extending to the midlobe as a narrowing midrib, base of callus yellow. Column white, erect, semiterete, clavate, apically winged, 2.1 cm long, 1 cm wide across wings and stigma; anther cap hidden by clinandrium; pollinia yellow, 8 in 2 units of 2 unequal pairs. Fruits pendent; pedicel curved, 2-3 cm long; capsule massive, oblong-cylindrical, 3-3.5 cm long. Chromosomes: n = 23.

  • Discussion

    1. Phaius tancarvilleae (Banks ex L'Heritier) Blume, Ann. Mus. Bot. Lugduno-Batavum 2: 177. 1852. Limodorum tancarvilleae Banks ex L'Heritier, Sert. Angl. 28. 1788. Type. ex. hort. Tankerville s.n., from China (holotype, BM). Phenology & Pollination. Plants bloom in the winter. In their native habitat, flowers are pollinated by large bees of the genus Xylocopa, but some forms self-pollinate (van der Pijl, 1954, cited in van der Pijl & Dodson, 1966). Our plants are likely autogamous, but conceivably they could be pollinated by the common, native Xylocopa. Illustrations. C. A. Luer, 1975a; Sheehan & Sheehan, 1979; Jayaweera, 1981; Ackerman & Del Castillo Mayda, 1992.

  • Distribution

    General Distribution. Northern Australia, China, India, Nepal, Southeast Asia to Philippines, and South Pacific islands. Naturalized in many parts of the tropics, including Jamaica and Puerto Rico.

    Australia Oceania| China Asia| India Asia| Nepal Asia| Asia| Philippines Asia| Jamaica South America| Puerto Rico South America| Oceania|