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Holothrix burmanniana (L.) Le Péchon & Bytebier, Phytotaxa 494: 250 (2021).
Homotypic Names:
Orchis burmanniana L., Pl. Rar. Afr.: 26 (1760).
Arethusa ciliaris L.f., Suppl. Pl.: 405 (1782), nom. superfl.
Orchis pectinata Thunb., Prodr. Pl. Cap.: 4 (1794), nom. superfl.
Habenaria burmanniana (L.) R.Br., Prodr. Fl. Nov. Holland.: 690 (1810), comb. not made.
Bartholina pectinata R.Br. in W.T.Aiton, Hortus Kew. 5: 194 (1813).
Bartholina burmanniana (L.) Ker Gawl., Brand. J. Sci. 4: 204 (1818).
Lathrisia pectinata Sw., Adnot. Bot.: 48 (1829), nom. superfl.
Heterotypic Synonyms:
Bartholina lindleyana Rchb.f. ex Rolfe in W.H.Harvey & auct. suc. (eds.), Fl. Cap. 5(3): 95 (1912).
Description:
Deciduous, winter-growing dwarf geophyte 50-220 mm high. Rootstock a single small soft, pale brown, ovoid-oblong root-stem tuberoid, annually replaced, 9-12 X 5-8 mm. Leaf solitary, dark olive green, smooth, broadly cordate or orbicular, prostrate, lobes overlapping, firmly clasping base of scape, margins ciliate, 12-40 X 8-40 mm. Scape slender, erect to suberect, 35-160 mm high, maroonish-brown for entire length, or maroon-ish-brown in lower half shading to green above, densely covered with white patent hairs 1-3 mm long, desiccating in summer but remaining attached to tuberoid until following growing season; pedicel curved forwards, 10-15 mm long. Inflorescence almost always single-flowered, rarely two, bracts spathaceous and clasping, oblong-lanceolate, green, subacute and pubescent, erect or slightly recurved, 9-12 mm long. Flowers large, faintly scented; sepals lanceolate and green, free, erect to suberect, subequal, pubescent only on margins and lower surface, 6-15 X 3-5 mm; petals narrowly lanceolate, white with bluish-mauve median stripe, erect or slightly recurved, 9-17 X 2-3 mm; lip broadly spreading, deeply cut into 3-5 lobes with 16-25 linear segments 2232 X 0.5-2 mm, segments deflexed and acuminate, white with a bluish-mauve median stripe; spur extending backwards, narrowly conical, subacute, 8—13 mm long. Column clavate, short, anthers immediately in front of petals, erect; pollinia solitary in each anther lobe, granular and oblong, on a long stalk; stigma minute. Ovary oblong and curved, pubescent, 10-15 mm long. Capsule oblong, 15-20 x 4-5 mm.
Habitat:
Bartholina burmanniana occurs in a variety of habitats and is most frequently seen in heavy clay soil in clearings or among bushes on stony hill slopes and flats in ‘renosterveld’, an Afrikaans term literally meaning ‘rhinoceros vegetation’, used to describe the vegetation type dominated by the greenish-grey leafed shrub Dicerothamnus rhinoceritis associated with fertile, clay-based soils. B. burmanniana also occurs on nutrient poor, acid sandstone soils on mountain tops and slopes in ‘fynbos’, another Afrikaans term literally meaning ‘fine bush’, used to describe the unique Cape heathland vegetation type dominated by fine-leaved shrubs such as Erica and Agathosma.
Cultivation:
South African deciduous terrestrial orchids such as Bartholina and certain members of the genus Disa (formerly placed in the genus Herschelianthe Rausch.), have long been regarded as highly fastidious subjects that can be grown quite easily for the first year following translocation from the wild, but inevitably succumb shortly thereafter. Maintaining these plants successfully under cultivation over an extended period depends on several factors. Firstly, their most important and distinctive physiological characteristic is their association with mycorrhizal fungi, with which the plant, and probably also the fungus, derive nutritional benefit by the exchange of nutrients. Secondly, deciduous terrestrials such as Bartholina that have annually replaced, single root-stem tuberoids as their rootstocks, must re-establish the mycorrhizae anew every growing season when new roots are formed, which provides at least a partial explanation for their more difficult cultivation compared to evergreen terrestrials. Successful cultivation of these orchids in the widest sense includes the ability to propagate them, in particular to propagate sexually. Vegetative propagation, whether by simple separation of rootstocks or by complicated in vitro techniques such as meristem culture, is of great economic importance, but as far as species conservation is concerned, it has limited value.
Distribution:
Bartholina burmanniana has a fairly wide distribution, occurring from Clanwilliam in the Olifants River Valley in an arc to Grahamstown in the southern part of the Eastern Cape, and still grows on top of Table Mountain above Cape Town. It occurs from just above sea-level up to 1200 m, flowering taking place from late August to mid-October, with a peak flowering period in September. Plants usually occur singly but are also found in small groups, and rarely in large colonies; they are sometimes seen growing in association with other orchid species including the similarly-leafed dwarf geophyte Holothrix villosa Lindl., and the much larger Satyrium bicorne (L.) Thunb. The distribution of the two species overlaps in the Western and southern Cape, and although B. etheliae is generally less frequent, it has a wider distribution stretching from southern Namibia to the central parts of the Eastern Cape. It occurs on sandy slopes and flats in fynbos, often under bushes, from near sea level to 1800 m, and flowers later in the season, from October to December. Its similar prostrate, orbicular leaf has usually withered by the time flowering commences with the onset of summer.
References:
Bolus, H. (1888). Bartholina burmanniana. The Orchids of the Cape Peninsula. Transactions of the South African Philosophical Society, volume 5, Part 1. Second edition 1918: t. 8. Darter Brothers & Co., Cape Town; Bolus, H. (1913). Bartholina burmanniana. Icones Orchidearum Austro-africanorum Extratropicarum 2: t. 14. Wesley & Sons, London; Brown, R. (1813). Bartholina. Aiton’s Hortus Kewensis, 2nd edition, 5: 194—195. London; Clements, M.A. (1982). Developments in the germination of Australian terrestrial orchids. Proceedings of the 10th World Orchid Conference. South African Orchid Council, Johannesburg. Duncan, G.D. (2000). Eulophia horsfallii at Kirstenbosch. Veld & Flora 86(1):16-18; Du Plessis, N.M. & Duncan, G.D. (1989). The family Orchidaceae. Bulbous Plants of Southern Africa: 157-174. Tafelberg Publishers, Cape Town.; Dyer, R.A. (1954). Bartholina etheliae. The Flowering Plants of Africa 30 t. 1178; Jackson, W.P.U. (1977). Bartholina burmanniana. Wild Flowers of Table Mountain: 89. Howard Timmins, Cape Town; Kurzweil, H. & Weber, A. (1991). Floral morphology of southern African Orchideae. Nord.J.Bot. 11: 155-178; Linder, H.P. & Kurzweil, H. (1999). Bartholina burmanniana. Orchids of Southern Africa: 95-96. Balkema, Rotterdam; Linnaeus, C. (1763). Plantae rariores africanae. Amoenitates Academicae 6: 108. Stockholm; Linnaeus, C. (1781) (‘1782’). Supplementum plantarum: 405. Holmiae, Brunsvigae ; Mason, H. & Du Plessis E. (1972). Bartholina burmanniana. Western Cape Sandveld Flowers: 96-97. Struik, Cape Town; Pauw, A. & Johnson, S.D. (1999). Table Mountain, a natural history: 46. Fernwood Press, Cape Town; Reichenbach, H.G. (1881). Otia Bot. Hamburg 2: 119. Hamburg; Rice, E.G. & Compton, R.H. (1951). Bartholina burmanniana. Wild Flowers of the Cape of Good Hope: t. 164. Botanical Society of South Africa, Cape Town; Saltmarsh, A.C. (2003). Francis Masson: Collecting plants for King and country. Curtis’s Bot. Mag. 20(4): 225-244; Schelpe, E.A. (1966). Bartholina burmanniana. An Introduction to the South African Orchids, plate 27. Purnell & Sons, Cape Town; Stewart, J. & Hennessy, E.F. (1981). Bartholina burmanniana. Orchids of Africa: 56-57, t. 5. Macmillan, Johannesburg; Stewart, J., Linder, H.P., Scelpe, E.A. & Hall, A.V. (1982). Bartholina burmanniana. Wild Orchids ofSouthern Africa: 66-68. Macmillan, Johannesburg; Thunberg, C.P. (1794). Prodromus plantarum capensium: 4. Uppsala; Vogelpoel, L. (1994). Growing Herschelianthes. South African Orchid Journal 25(2): 62-65;. Wodrich, K.H. (1997). Growing South African Indigenous Orchids: 41. Balkema, Rotterdam; Two new names in Holothrix (Orchideae, Orchidaceae) Phytotaxa 494 (2): 2021; POWO (2022). "Plants of the World Online. Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Published on the Internet; http://www.plantsoftheworldonline.org/ Retrieved 28 November 2022."
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Habitat/ In Situ	Habitat/ In Situ	Habitat/ In Situ	Habitat/ In Situ
Photograph© Cameron McMaster. Image used with kind permission.	Photograph© Cameron McMaster. Image used with kind permission.	Photograph© Cameron McMaster. Image used with kind permission.	Photograph© Cameron McMaster. Image used with kind permission.