Cynorkis jackyi Hermans & Sieder, Kew Bull. 72(3)-38: 8 (2017).
Description:
Erect terrestrial herb, up to 21 cm tall, including the inflorescence. Tubers 2, ovoid-ellipsoid, c. 15 mm long, 10 mm wide, with a woolly surface; roots white, fleshy, woolly c. 1.5 mm in diam. Stem partly underground, white, very short, merging into the leaf petiole, with a short brown sheath at the base, c. 10 mm long, 4 - 5 mm in diam., with a pair of sub-opposite leaves. Leaves pale green strongly reticulate with pale veins and cross-bars and sunken darker patches, paler beneath, ovate, acuminate at the tip, almost flat on the ground, with a short petiole, the second leaf generally smaller and sometimes almost sheath-like, 38 -41 mm long, 24 - 28 mm wide. Inflorescence reddish green to dark brown, a little angular, carrying a few short hairs, emerging from the centre of the leaves, up to 19 cm long, 1.2 - 1.5 mm in diam., with a short apiculate peduncle sheath around the middle, c. 8 x 2 mm; rachis 5 - 7 cm, laxly up to 10-flowered; floral bracts reddish green, amplexicaul at the base, acuminate, apiculate at the apex 2.5 - 3.2 mm long, 0.8 - 1.0 mm wide; pedicel and ovary microscopically verrucose, pale green longitudinally ridged with purple-red, slightly curved, 4 - 5 mm long, 1.0 - 1.3 mm wide. Flowers overall c. 5 mm long, 6 mm wide, all parts more or less fleshy, lateral sepals pale green-yellow, dorsal sepal and petals orange-pink darker around the margin of the petals, lip white, more or less pink in the middle, the basal callus darker pink, pollinarium pink, spur green becoming reddish brown towards the apex, some forms are almost entirely greenish-yellow in all parts. Dorsal sepal ovate, forming a tight hood with the petals, concave, 2.1 - 2.2 mm long, 1.0 - 1.1 mm wide, base inflated, the apex a little recurved; lateral sepals spreading, partly recurved, obovate-oblong 2.9 - 3.1 mm long, 1.5 - 1.6 mm wide. Petals appressed to the dorsal sepal margins, obovate-oblong curved apically, 2.0 - 2.1 mm long, 1.1 - 1.2 mm wide. Lip obscurely 3-lobed, overall 2.5 - 2.7 mm long, 2.0 - 2.2 mm wide, the lateral lobes rounded, the mid-lobe triangular-ligulate, disk raised in the middle, with a distinct rounded callus at the base; spur narrowed at the base becoming inflated in the lower 2/3, 3.2 - 3.5 mm long, 0.5 - 0.6 mm diam. in the middle. Column short, in one plane, 1.2 - 1.4 mm long 1.1 - 1.2 mm wide, with two short angular rostellum arms, staminodes rounded and lobulelike, anther loculi distinct, ovate, pollinia on a very short caudicle.
Etymology:
The new species is named for Jacky Lucien Andriantiana of the Parc Botanique et Zoologique de Tsimbazaza, Madagascar, recognising his outstanding contribution to the discovery of new orchids in Madagascar.
Habitat:
Terrestrial, coastal low elevation forest on white sand, with lichens on the ground.
Notes:
The new species is recognised by the two basal leaves with strongly tessellate venation and the long slender inflorescence with up to 10 small flowers. The lip has a distinct rounded callus at its base and a somewhat swollen spur. It has small flowers somewhat similar to those of species in the genus Benthamia A. Rich. (Richard 1828: 43) but it has ovoid-ellipsoid tubers (vs long and fasciculate in Benthamia), ovate leaves (vs generally narrow in Benthamia), a distinct callus on the base of the lip (not known in Benthamia) and short rostellum caudicles (vs lacking in Benthamia). Reticulate or otherwise patterned basal leaves are not uncommon in Cynorkis and can be found in species like Cynorkis tryphioides Schltr. (Schlechter 1913: 155) but with a completely different habit and floral morphology. It is most similar to Cynorkis falcata (Frapp. ex Cordem.) Schltr. (Schlechter 1915: 400), endemic to Réunion, with which it shares the size, lip shape and other floral characteristics but it differs in having more than one leaf with distinct net-like venation, is laxly flowered and has a rounded callus at the base of the lip.
Cultivation:
As given for the genus.
Distribution:
So far only known from a small coastal area in Southern Madagascar.
References:
New species and nomenclatural changes in Cynorkis (Orchidaceae: Orchidoideae) from Madagascar and the Mascarenes, KEW BULLETIN (2017) 72: 38
