Cynorkis × ranaivosonii Hermans, Orchids (West Palm Beach) 88: 547 (2019).
Description:
Erect terrestrial plant up to 45 cm high including the inflorescence. Tubers 1 to 3, elongate, ovoid, up to 19-45 x 7-12 mm, clustered, surface velvety; roots slightly hairy, fleshy, wiry, emerging from the base of the new growth, ca. 1.5 mm in diam. Stem up to 5 cm long, 4-8 mm in diam., pale green, enveloped by an acuminate sheath, 3043 x 5-8 mm. Leaves 1 or rarely 2, erect to arching, narrowly lanceolate, acuminate, 9.5-19 x 1-2.5 cm, conduplicate, dorsally keeled, acuminate, somewhat fleshy, a little shiny on top, pale green often with broken longitudinal brownish-red streaks. Inflorescence stout, erect, emerging from the leaf axil, up to 40 cm long, 4-8 mm in diam., green, longitudinally marked with red. Peduncle with a very long leaflike lanceolate-subulate sheath in the lower half, 65-82 mm long, 8-12 mm wide, with a second and rarely a third peduncle sheath farther up, of the same shape but a little shorter, 56-74 mm long, 6-10 mm wide, green, longitudinally marked with brownish-red. Rachis tightly racemose, at the apex, with 5 to 10 flowers. Floral bracts enveloping the base of the pedicellate ovary, lanceolate-infundibulate, 21-35 x 4-9 mm, acuminate, caudate at the tip, green, longitudinally more or less marked with red. Flowers large for the genus, overall up to 4.5 x 6.5 cm without the spur, with pale green sepals more or less marked with brownish-red, green petals, and lavender to purple-red lip, with dark red markings in the throat, more or less spreading onto the disk, a dark green to brown spur, green column and reddish- brown pollinarium. Pedicel and ovary fusiform, finely hirsute becoming much denser toward the base of the flower, dark green to brownish-green. Dorsal sepal strongly concave, elliptic-oblong, subacute, 18-20 x 4-4.9 mm, together with the petals, forming a hood over the column, glandular-hirsute on the exterior. Lateral sepals spreading, a little concave, ovate-lanceolate, 20-21 x 8-9.5 mm, glandular on the exterior. Petals subfalcate, linear-oblong, obtuse, 18-20 x 4-4.8 mm, glabrous. Lip overall 32-36 x 33-35 mm, base elongated and connate to the base of the column, first narrowly angular then expanded and 4-lobed; with two slightly large oblong, spreading lateral lobes, the midlobe deeply divided, the divisions subrectangular-obtuse, the margins sinuate to undulate; spur 35-38 x 3.5-3.8 mm, at first shortly thickened at the lip base then pendent, tubular to slightly thickened towards the tip, obtuse, initially enveloped by the floral bracts but becoming free on opening. Column in a horizontal plane 12-14 mm long, 8-10 mm wide, with two curved rostellum arms for a third its length, midlobe forming a nose-like protrusion emarginate at the tip, staminodes smooth, elongate, hidden below the rostellum; pollinia 2, composed of a small disc-like viscidium and a long needle-like stipe caudicle up to 11 mm long running in a groove along the column, the pollen masses enclosed in a pair of relatively small anther loculi in the base of the hood of the column.
Etymology:
Named for Nirina (Niry) Ranaivoson, one of the most outstanding guides to Madagascar and its flora and fauna; he recently discovered extensive colonies of the new natural hybrid in central Madagascar.
Habitat:
High plateau grassland, rocky outcrops, at the base of granite inselberg, in water seepage among rock, wet grassland; 1,200-1,500 m.
Flowering time:
January to February.
Notes
Cynorkis x ranaivosonii is a natural hybrid between Cynorkis speciosa Ridl. (Ridley 1886:122) and Cynorkis uniflora Lindl. (Lindley 1835:331), having intermediate characteristics between the two species both in habit and in floral features (see comparison Table 1). It is recognized by the single (rarely two) narrowly lanceolate leaf, the stout inflorescence partly covered by two prominent, longly infundibulate sheaths with an apically racemose rachis of five to 10 large, brightly colored flowers. The sepals glandular on the exterior, the lip prominent and almost equally four-lobed with the lobes subrectangular-obtuse, the margins sinuate to undulate and the spur 3.5-4 cm parallel with the ovary.
Summary:
Cynorkis x ranaivosonii from the highlands of Madagascar is described for the first time as a natural hybrid between Cynorkis speciosa and Cynorkis uniflora and it is compared with the parents.
Distribution:
Madagascar
References:
Cynorkis x ranaivosonii A New Natural Hybrid in Cynorkis from Madagascar by Johan Hermans and Landy Rajaovelona/photographs by Johan Hermans, Lindleyana; POWO (2022). "Plants of the World Online. Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Published on the Internet; http://www.plantsoftheworldonline.org/ Retrieved 20 November 2022."
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