Orchidantha

Orchidantha is a genus of flowering plants. In the APG III system, it is placed in the family Lowiaceae,[2] as the sole genus.[5] It includes the plants in the formerly recognised genera Lowia and Protamomum.

Orchidantha
Orchidantha maxillarioides[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Monocots
Clade:	Commelinids
Order:	Zingiberales
Family:	Lowiaceae Ridl.[2]
Genus:	Orchidantha N.E.Br.[3]
Type species
Orchidantha borneensi N.E.Br.
Synonyms[4]
Lowia Scort. 1886 not Hook.f. 1894 Lowia Hook.f. 1894 not Scort. 1886 Protamomum Ridl. 1893

Orchidantha remains a poorly known genus, found from southern China to Borneo.[4][6] Orchidantha means "orchid-flower", as one of the petals on the flowers is modified into a labellum, like the flowers of orchids.[7] One species, Orchidantha inouei of Borneo, imitates the smell of dung in order to attract small Onthophagus dung beetles as pollinators.[8]

Taxonomy

Cladogram: Phylogeny of Zingiberales[9]

Zingiberales     Zingiberineae Zingiberariae   Zingiberaceae     Costaceae     Cannariae   Cannaceae     Marantaceae         Strelitziineae   Lowiaceae     Strelitziaceae       Heliconiaceae             Musaceae

Species

As of August 2013, the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families accepted 17 species:[4][10]

• Orchidantha borneensis N.E.Br. - Borneo
• Orchidantha chinensis T.L.Wu - Guangdong, Guangxi
• Orchidantha fimbriata Holttum - Pen. Malaysia
• Orchidantha foetida Jenjitt. & K.Larsen - Thailand
• Orchidantha grandiflora Mood & L.B.Pedersen - Sabah
• Orchidantha holttumii K.Larsen - Sabah, Brunei
• Orchidantha inouei Nagam. & S.Sakai - Sarawak
• Orchidantha insularis T.L.Wu - Hainan
• Orchidantha laotica K.Larsen - Laos
• Orchidantha longiflora (Scort.) Ridl. - Pen. Malaysia
• Orchidantha maxillarioides (Ridl.) K.Schum. - Pahang
• Orchidantha quadricolor L.B.Pedersen & A.L.Lamb - Sabah
• Orchidantha sabahensis A.L.Lamb & L.B.Pedersen - Sabah
• Orchidantha siamensis K.Larsen - Pen. Malaysia, S Thailand
• Orchidantha stercorea H.Ð.Trần & Škorničk. - Vietnam
• Orchidantha suratii L.B.Pedersen - Sabah
• Orchidantha vietnamica K.Larsen - Vietnam

References

1. 1894 illustration by Matilda Smith, published in "Curtis's Botanical Magazine" vol. 120 ser. 3 nr. 50 tabl. 7351
2. Angiosperm Phylogeny Group III (2009). "An update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification for the orders and families of flowering plants: APG III". Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. 161 (2): 105–121. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8339.2009.00996.x.
3. "Orchidantha". World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Retrieved 2013-08-20.
4. Search for "Orchidantha", "World Checklist of Selected Plant Families". Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Retrieved 2013-08-20.
5. Stevens, P.F. "Lowiaceae". Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Retrieved 2013-08-20.
6. Flora of China Vol. 24 Page 319 兰花蕉科 lan hua jiao ke Lowiaceae Ridley
7. "Lowiaceae" Archived 2012-09-02 at the Wayback Machine. Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Retrieved 9 September 2011
8. Sakai, Shoko; Tamiji, Inoue (1 January 1999). "A new pollination system: dung-beetle pollination discovered in Orchidantha inouei (Lowiaceae, Zingiberales) in Sarawak, Malaysia". American Journal of Botany. 86 (1): 56–61. doi:10.2307/2656954. JSTOR 2656954. Retrieved 9 September 2011.
9. Sass et al 2016.
10. Christenhusz, M. J. M. & Byng, J. W. (2016). "The number of known plants species in the world and its annual increase". Phytotaxa. Magnolia Press. 261 (3): 201–217. doi:10.11646/phytotaxa.261.3.1.

Bibliography

• Sass, C; Iles, WJ; Barrett, CF; Smith, SY; Specht, CD (21 January 2016). "Revisiting the Zingiberales: using multiplexed exon capture to resolve ancient and recent phylogenetic splits in a charismatic plant lineage". PeerJ. 4: e1584. doi:10.7717/peerj.1584. PMC 4727956. PMID 26819846.