Journal of Threatened
Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 April 2018 | 10(5): 11683–11685
Notes
on fairy orchids (Magnoliopsida: Asparagales:
Orchidaceae: Oberonia)
of Sri Lanka: revision in regional distribution and documentation on vegetative
propagation
Menaka Ariyarathne
1 & Deepthi Yakandawala 2
1,2 Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, University
of Peradeniya, Galaha Road,
Peradeniya 20400, Sri Lanka
1,2 Post Graduate Institute of Science, University of Peradeniya, Galaha Road, Peradeniya 20400, Sri Lanka
1 menakaa306@gmail.com (corresponding author),
2 deepthiyakandawala@gmail.com
doi: http://doi.org/10.11609/jott.3854.10.5.11683-11685
Editor:
Pankaj Kumar, Kadoorie Farm and
Botanic Garden (KFBG) Corporation, Tai Po, Hong Kong S.A.R., China.
Date of publication: 26 April 2018 (online & print)
Manuscript
details: Ms # 3854 | Received 23 October 2017 | Final received 23
February 2018 | Finally accepted 29 March 2018
Citation: Ariyarathne, M. & D. Yakandawala (2018). Notes
on fairy orchids (Magnoliopsida: Asparagales:
Orchidaceae: Oberonia)
of Sri Lanka: revision in regional distribution and documentation on vegetative
propagation. Journal of Threatened
Taxa 10(5): 11683–11685; http://doi.org/10.11609/jott.3854.10.5.11683-11685
Copyright: © Ariyarathne & Yakandawala 2018. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. JoTT allows unrestricted use of this article in any medium,
reproduction and distribution by providing adequate credit to the authors and
the source of publication.
Funding: National Research Council, Sri
Lanka (Grant Number- NRC 12-121).
Competing interests: The
authors declare no competing interests.
Acknowledgements: Authors wish to thank Dr. Malaka Wijesinghe
for his valuable support during the field work. Department of Wildlife conservation and Forest department of Sri
Lanka for providing necessary permissions. This
research was financially supported by National research council of Sri Lanka
(NRC 12-121).
The genus Oberonia Lindley was first described by
Lindley in 1830 [Lindley 1963 (1830)], after ÔOberonÕ the mythological king of
fairies. At the beginning Lindley
described 13 Oberonia species and subsequently
many species were recognized and are still being described. According to Pridgeon
et al. (2006) the genus consists of 150–200 species but based on the
latest updates, this genus consists of 343 accepted species (eMonocot 2015).
Sri Lanka harbors 16 Oberonia species
including the newly recognized Oberonia meegaskumbura Priyadarshana,
Wijewardana & Kumar (Fernando & Ormerod 2008; MOE 2012; Priyadarshana
et al. 2017). According to Fernando
& Ormerod (2008) there are eight endemic Oberonia species in Sri Lanka, viz.: O. claviloba Jayaweera (1963), O.
dolabrata Jayaweera
(1963), O. longibracteata Lindley, (1830), O.
quadrilatera Jayaweera
(1963), O. scyllae Lindley (1859), O. truncata Lindley (1859), O. walliesilvae
Jayaweera (1963), and O. weragamaensis
Jayaweera (1963). In 2012 the national red list of Sri
Lanka had recognized nine endemic species including O. forcipata
Lindley (1859) in addition to the eight species listed by Fernando & Ormerod (2008).
Though Jayaweera (1981) reported O. forcipata as a species endemic to Sri Lanka, Johnsingh (2001) reported the occurrence of O. forcipata from Kalakad-Mundanthurai
Tiger Reserve in India.
Similarly, Oberonia longibracteata
is another species that has been recorded as endemic to Sri Lanka by the
Handbook to the Flora of Ceylon (Trimen 1893), the
Revised Handbook to the Flora of Ceylon (Jayaweera
1981), an annotated check list of Orchids of Sri Lanka (Fernando & Ormerod 2008), and the national red list of threatened
flora and fauna of Sri Lanka (MOE 2012).
Contradictory to these reports, O. longibracteata
has been recorded from India (Kerala), Thailand, Cambodia, China and Vietnam
(Ansari & Balakrishnan 1990; Pridgeon
et al. 2006; eFloras 2008; Averyanov
2013). It is recorded as a
well-known folk medicine for scorpion bites in Cambodia (Lewis & Elvin-Lewis
2003; Pridgeon et al. 2006).
This record once again reduces the number
of endemic Oberonia species in Sri Lanka to
eight (including Oberonia meegaskumbura) and the total number of endemics in the
family Orchidaceae remain at 50 with the addition of
the recently recognized endemics, O. meegaskumbura
and Podochilus warnagalensis
Wijewardana, Priyadarshana,
Arangala, Attanagoda, Samarakoon & Kumar (Wijewardana
et al. 2016). The accurate status
of a species is important for the validity of the other documentation such as
taxonomic revisions and evaluation of the conservation categories during the
red listing and the richness of the biodiversity of the island.
Sexual reproduction
is commonly observed in the family Orchidaceae. However, vegetative propagation by
the means of
producing adventitious buds with roots towards the ends of
stems/leaves is also recorded in few genera such as Podochilus
Blume (1825), Vanda Jones ex R. Br. (1820),
and Phalaenopsis Blume
(1825). According to the available literature,
the reproduction of species belonging to the genus Oberonia
was exclusively sexual, via seeds (Jones et al. 2010 who referred to (Clements
1989; Dockrill 1969, 1992; Schlechter
1911, 1982; Seidenfaden 1978)), until an observation
was made in 2013 by Averyanov on vegetative
propagation by means of producing new plantlets from the axils of floral bracts
of old inflorescence in Oberonia longibracteata. In the present communication we
record a recent observation, on vegetative propagation of the same species, O.
longibracteata, and this will be the first
record of vegetative propagation of an Oberonia
species in Sri Lanka. This
observation was made at Hantane Forest Reserve at an
elevation of 1,203m during the dry season in Kandy District, Sri Lanka (Image
1).
These propagules were observed, emerging at a distance of about
½ to ⅔ from the base of the fleshy matured leaves where the drying
inflorescence is attached. These
newly emerged keikis have the ability to grow into a
mature plant while being attached to the mother plant and also produce flowers
and fruits. Once this leaf bearing
the keiki dries off, the keiki
starts growing as an independent plant by gradually attaching to the nearby
surface.
As this observation
was made during the dry season in November, this could be an adaptation to
survive and reproduce. This
mechanism ensures the reproductive success and survival of the species during
exhausting environmental conditions by producing fully grown
propagules.
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