Bulbophyllum Thouars is among the largest genera in the orchid family, consisting of 1868 species and widely distributed in tropical Africa, Asia and South America. There are approximately 32 species in section Lemniscata, mainly distributed in South to South-East Asia. During the botanical survey between 2009-2016 in karst regions of southern Yunnan, many little known orchids were discovered.

   Researchers from Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) discovered one new species of Bulbophyllum in Mengla County, Xishuangbanna. They named it as Bulbophyllum menglaense.

  Bulbophyllum menglaense has closely pseudobulbs along the rhizome and carrying 2 apical, deciduous leaves; many flowered raceme inflorescence; lower edges of lateral sepals connate to each other about 2/3 to apex. It seems to belong to section Lemniscata.

  Bulbophyllum menglaense is epiphytic on tree or rocks in capped forest in karst regions, at elevation 1100–1250 m, together with two congenerics, B. hirtum and B. muscarirubrum.

  Bulbophyllum menglaense is morphologically similar to B. cariniflorum and B. riste, but differs from them by pseudobulbs conical; scape longer than leaves; petals narrowly lanceolate, marings ciliate; stelidia lanceolate.

  Bulbophyllum menglaense was considered as Endangered (EN) under criterion according to IUCN categories and criteria (IUCN 2016).

  The new species “Bulbophyllum menglaense (Orchidaceae), a new species from Yunnan, China” has been published online in Phytotaxa.

Contact

LI Jianwu

Center for Integrative Conservation, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Mengla, Yunnan 666303, China

E-mail: ljw@xtbg.org.cn

Bulbophyllum menglaense (Image by LI Jianwu)

Bulbophyllum menglaense (Image by LI Jianwu)