Wullschlaegelia

• 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

  Wullschlaegelia

• Description

  Genus Description - Plants sympodial, achlorophyllous, "saprophytic," leafless terrestrials with a pubescence of bifurcate hairs. Roots fleshy, dimorphic, some fusiform, others slender, clustered along a short rhizome. Inflorescences terminal, erect; scapes slender; bracts remote, minute; racemes many-flowered, apex nodding in bud. Flowers minute, erect, resupinate or not. Sepals and petals free, connivent. Dorsal sepal cucullate; lateral sepals decurrent on the column foot, forming a distinct mentum. Petals similar to the dorsal sepal. Lip simple, sessile, basally saccate, oblong-obovate. Column very short, basally pubescent beneath the tonguelike stigma; foot prominent; stigma lobes confluent, entire, concave, on apex of the column; anther erect, terminal, embedded in the column; pollinia 2, sectile with slender massulae, attached to a prominent viscidium. Fruit a capsule.

• Discussion

  Wullschlaegelia Reichenbach f., Bot. Zeitung (Berlin) 21: 131. 1863. Type species. Wullschlaegelia aphylla Reichenbach f. based on Cranichis aphylla Reichenbach f. of the West Indies, Mexico, Central America and tropical South America. A neotropical genus of 2 species. The generic name commemorates Heinrich R. Wullschlagel (1805-1864), a plant collector in Jamaica and elsewhere. Special Literature. Dressier, 1981.