Cottonia

Cottonia is a monotypic genus of flowering plants from the orchid family, Orchidaceae: the only known species is Cottonia peduncularis. It is native to India and Sri Lanka. The genus was erected by Robert Wight and named after Major F. Cotton, an amateur botanist who served in the Madras Engineer Group and collected the species from Tellichery.[2][3]

Cottonia
1890 illustration from
Curtis's Botanical Magazine
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Plantae
(unranked):
Angiosperms
(unranked):
Monocots
Order:
Asparagales
Family:
Orchidaceae
Subfamily:
Epidendroideae
Tribe:
Vandeae
Subtribe:
Aeridinae
Genus:
Cottonia

Species:
C. peduncularis
Binomial name
Cottonia peduncularis
Synonyms[1]
  • Vanda peduncularis Lindl.
  • Cottonia macrostachya Wight
  • Vanda bicaudata Thwaites

This epiphytic orchid has a lip shaped like a hairy bee as in the well-known Ophrys apifera giving it the name of bee-orchid but unlike species in the genus Ophrys, it is not known to be pollinated by any bee. It was first described as Vanda peduncularis by Lindley.[2]

See also
  • List of natural Orchidaceae genera

References
  1. The Plant List (2013). Version 1.1
  2. [F.W.B.] (1885). "Orchids. Vanda peduncularis". The Garden: 51.
  3. "Cottonia macrostachya". Curtis's Botanical Magazine. 46: 7099. 1890.
  • Wight, R. (1851) Icones Plantarum Indiae Orientalis 5: 21.
  • Berg Pana, H. 2005. Handbuch der Orchideen-Namen. Dictionary of Orchid Names. Dizionario dei nomi delle orchidee. Ulmer, Stuttgart
  • Pridgeon, A.M., Cribb, P., Chase, M.W. & Rasmussen, F.N. (Eds) (2014) Genera Orchidacearum Volume 6: Epidendroideae (Part 3); page 168 ff., Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-964651-7
  • Media related to Cottonia at Wikimedia Commons
  • Data related to Cottonia at Wikispecies


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