Rhipidoglossum pendulum (la Croix & P.J.Cribb) Farminhão & Stévart, Phytotaxa 349: 253 (2018).
Homotypic Names:
Cribbia pendula la Croix & P.J.Cribb, Kew Bull. 52: 747 (1997).
Angraecopsis pendula (la Croix & P.J.Cribb) R.Rice, Prelim. Checklist & Survey Subtrib. Aerangidinae (Orchidac.): 20 (2005).
Description:
A small epiphytic herb. Stem c. 7 cm long, leafy in apical part, covered with persistent leaf bases below. Leaves 7 - 8, coriaceous, distichous, ligulatelanceolate, unequally and obtusely bilobed at the apex, 9.5 - 1.3 x 1.5 - 1.7 cm, articulated below to sheathing leaf bases. Inflorescences pendent, emerging from the axils of the lower leaves, up to 12 cm long, laxly 1- to 3-flowered; peduncle wiry and very slender, c. 8 cm long, bearing up to 6 tight, 3 mm long, brown sheaths along length; bracts lanceolate, acute, 3 mm long, brown. Flowers transluncent, pale green; pedicel and ovary slender, 15 mm long. Dorsal sepal erect, linear, acute, 14 x 2 - 2.5 mm. Lateral sepals reflexed and somewhat deflexed, linear, geniculate-falcate, acute, 16 x 2 mm. Petals spreading-subporrect, narrowly oblanceolate, acute, 14 x 3 mm, lying along edge of lip. Lip obovate, apiculate, 15 - 17 x 10 - 12 mm, apical margins erose; spur ascending, very slender, 10 - 11 mm long. Column porrect, slender, 2 - 2.5 mm long; stigma with a lip at the base; rostellum 3-lobed, the lateral lobes slightly shorter than the middle one; pollinia 2, porate each attached by an oblanceolate stipe to a small elliptical viscidium.
Habitat:
Epiphyte in mist forest; 2000 m.
Cultivation:
As given for the genus, cool growing, monopodial epiphyte.
Notes:
Cribbia pendula is the most distinctive species in the genus, characterised by its one- to three-flowered, pendent inflorescences and large flowers with an obovate, apiculate lip with an erose apical margin, and an ascending 10 - 11 mm long spur. It is only known from the type collection from the mist forest zone of Pico Sao Tome. This mountain is still relatively inaccessible and has seldom been visited by botanical collectors. Its flora has many similarities with those of Mt Cameroon and the neighbouring islands of Principe and Annobon. Exell (1944) considered 108 of its 556 species, including a number of orchids, to be endemic to the island, the result of its comparative isolation.
Distribution:
São Tomé
References:
Angraecoid Orchids Stewart, Hermans, Campbell 2006; WCSP (2017). 'World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. 25.02-2017; http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/
Images:
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