Journal of Threatened Taxa |
www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 March 2023 | 15(3): 22916–22919
ISSN 0974-7907
(Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print)
https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.7917.15.3.22916-22919
#7917 | Received 13
March 2022 | Final received 11 December 2022 | Finally accepted 02 March 2023
Cyrtosia falconeri (Hook.f.)
Aver. (Orchidaceae): an addition to the flora of
Jammu & Kashmir, India
Mushtaq Ahmed 1 & Manjul Dhiman 2
1,2 Laboratory
of Plant Taxonomy and Conservation Department of Botany, KLDAV PG College
Roorkee, Haridwar (affiliated to HNB Garhwal
University) Uttarakhand 247667, India.
1 ahmedmbot@gmail.com
(corresponding author), 2 manjul.dhiman@rediffmail.com
Editor: Pankaj Kumar, Department of Plant and Soil
Science, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas, USA. Date of publication: 26 March
2023 (online & print)
Citation: Ahmed, M. & M. Dhiman (2023). Cyrtosia
falconeri (Hook.f.)
Aver. (Orchidaceae): an addition to the flora of
Jammu & Kashmir, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 15(3): 22916–22919. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.7917.15.3.22916-22919
Copyright: © Ahmed & Dhiman 2023. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproduction, and
distribution of this article in any medium by providing adequate credit to the
author(s) and the source of publication.
Funding: None.
Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.
The genus Cyrtosia
Blume consists of six species mainly found in Asia, up to southern China,
Japan, and Madagascar (Govaerts et al. 2022). In
India, the genus is represented by four species namely, cathcartii
Hook.f., falconeri
(Hook.f.) Aver., lindleyana
(Hook.f. & Thomson) Rchb.f.,
and nudifolia Lour.
(Singh et al. 2019), out of which two species— Lindleyana
and falconeri—occur in western Himalaya.
During the present biodiversity exploration visit in the forest of Koteranka of Rajouri district in
Jammu & Kashmir (J&K), the first author found an interesting mycoheterotrophic orchid growing in an evergreen mature oak
forest. After proper morphological study in the field, the plant was collected
for the herbarium specimen (Image 1). Collected specimen was submitted to the
herbarium of Department of Botany, KL DAV PG College Roorkee. After a
comprehensive literature study, it was identified as Cyrtosia
falconeri (Hooker 1890; King & Pantling 1898; Deva & Naithani
1986; Pearce & Cribb 2002; Misra 2007; Akhtar et
al. 2011; Jalal & Jayanthi 2013, 2015). Rai et al. (2017) reported this
orchid for the first time from western Himalaya in Uttarakhand. However, the
present report extends its distribution further west to Jammu & Kashmir,
which consists of a total of 48 species of orchids (Akhtar et al. 2011), and
current report also marks the new generic record of the genus Cyrtosia for the state. Taxonomic
description, photo plate, and herbarium specimen are provided in the
manuscript.
Cyrtosia falconeri (Hook.f.)
Aver. Turczaninowia 14(2): 38 (2011); Galeola
falconeri Hook.f., Fl.
Brit. India 6: 88. 1890; King & Pantl., Ann. Roy.
Bot. Gard. (Calcutta) 8: 265, t. 353. 1898; Duthie in Ann. Roy. Bot. Gard.
(Calcutta) 9(2): 156. 1906; Raizada, Naithani & Saxena, Orch. Mussoorie:
46. 1981; Seidenf. & Arora in Nord. J. Bot. 2:
17. 1982; Deva & Naithani, Orch. Fl. N.W.
Himalaya: 47, t.15. 1986; Chowdhery, Orch. Arunachal
Pradesh 405, t. 243. 1998; Pearce & Cribb, Orch. Bhutan 64. 2002; Lucksom, Orch. Sikkim North East Himalaya: 59, t. 40. 2007;
Chowdhery& Agrawala, Cen.W. Himalayan Orch.: 212, t.74. 2013. 2–3.
Type: India, Gharwal,
Falconer s.n. (syntype, K).
Plants 1–3 m, in height. Rhizome
branched, 3–5 cm in diam., covered with triangular scales at nodes, 2.0–4.2 cm
in diam. in size. Stem brownish, glabrous lower part, while upper sparsely
& short rusty hairs, dull brownish to reddish, erect, covered with some
lanceolate to ovate scales sizing 2.5–4.5 cm. Inflorescence raceme, 5–33 cm,
peduncle, and rachis shortly tomentose. Floral bracts
narrowly elliptic or ovate, 1.1–3.5 mm, found vertical to rachis, abaxially
shortly rusty tomentose. Pedicel and ovary, densely
rusty tomentose, 1– 3.5 cm long. Flowers 4–5 cm in
diameter, bright yellow. Sepals elliptic to oblong, densely rusty tomentose and smooth outside, 2–3 cm in length and 1–1.6 cm
in width. Petals are slightly narrower than sepals but as long as sepals. Lip
cup–shaped, entire, ovate to orbicular, ca. 2.5 cm in diameter, basal part
loosely embracing column, a small basal sac formed with transversal fold, inner
side densely papillose, and margins fimbriate. Column erect, stout, slightly
curved forward, 2.5–3.5 mm long, basal portions consist of two tufts of long
papillae, anther cap nearly glabrous or papillose. Fruit oblong, red to purple,
cylindric, 20– 25 cm long, 3 cm in diameter, surface finely verruculose.
Seeds dark brown, 1–2 mm in diameter, with a narrow-encircled wing (Image 2).
Specimen examined: KL DAV 092197,
10.iv.2021, India. Jammu & Kashmir, Rajouri, Koteranka, Kalyian forests, coll.
Mushtaq Ahmed & Manjul Dhiman.
Habitat: Terrestrial, grows in
humus-rich soil in evergreen oak forests at an elevation of 1,765 m, 33.3510N
& 74.5350E.
Phenology: May–June.
Distribution: Globally it is
distributed in Vietnam, Bhutan, India, China, and Thailand. In India, it was
mainly reported from eastern Himalaya ranging from West Bengal to Arunachal
Pradesh. However, this species was also reported from Uttarakhand of the
eastern Himalaya.
For images - - click here for full PDF
References
Agrawala, D.K., H.J. Chowdhery
& V. Kumar (2013). Extended distribution of Oreorchis
patens (Orchidaceae) and its Red List status in
India. Richardiana 13: 267–276.
Akhtar, C.,
A.A. Khuroo, G.H. Dar, Z.S. Khan & A.H. Malik
(2011). An updated
checklist of orchids in the Indian Himalayan State of Jammu and Kashmir. Pleione
5(1): 1–9.
Chowdhery, H.J. & D.K. Agarwala (2013). A Century of West Himalayan
Orchids. Bishen Singh Mahendra
Pal Singh, Dehradun, 313 pp.
Chowdhery, H.J. (1998). Orchid Flora of Arunachal Pradesh. Bishen
Singh Mahendra Pal Singh, Dehra Dun, 824 pp.
Deva, S.
& H.B. Naithani (1986). Orchids of the northwestern
Himalaya. Bishen Singh Mahendra Pal Singh. Dehradun, India, 459 pp.
Duthie,
J.F. (1906). The orchids of the North-Western
Himalaya. Annals of the Royal Botanic Garden, Calcutta 9(2): 81–211
Govaerts, R., P. Bernet,
K. Kratochvil, G. Gerlach, G. Carr,
P. Alrich, A.M. Pridgeon,
J.P. fahl, M.A. Campacci,
D. Holland, Baptista, H. Tigges, J. Shaw, P. Cribb,
A. George, K. Kreuz & J. Wood (2022). World Checklist of Orchidaceae. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic
Gardens, Kew. http://www.kew.org/wcsp/
. Accessed July 2022.
Hooker, J.D.
(1890). Flora of
British India. Vol. 6. Reeve
and Co., Kent, 792 pp.
Lucksom, S.Z. (2007). The orchids of Sikkim and North
East Himalaya: Development
Area, Jiwan Thing Marg, Gangtok,
East Sikkim, India, 984 pp.
Jalal, J.S.
& J. Jayanthi (2013). Current status and distribution of mycoheterotrophic
Orchids of India. Richardiana 13: 137–155.
Jalal, J.S.
& J. Jayanthi (2015). An annotated checklist of the orchids of western Himalaya, India. Lankesteriana 15(1): 7–50.
King, G.
& R Pantling (1898). The Orchids of the
Sikkim-Himalaya. Annals of the Royal Botanic Garden (Calcutta) 8(1-4): 1–342,
t. 1–448.
Misra, S. (2007). Orchids of India: A Glimpse. Bishen Singh Mahendra Pal Singh.
Dehradun, India, 402 pp.
Pearce, N.R.
& P.J. Cribb (2002). The Orchids of Bhutan, Vol. 3. Royal Botanical Garden, Edinburgh, 643 pp.
Raizada, M.B., H.B. Naithani
& H.O. Saxena (1981). Orchids of Mussoorie. Bishan Singh Mahendra Pal Singh, Dehradun, 100 p.
Rai, I.D.,
J.S. Jalal, G. Singh & G.S. Rawat (2017). Note on the occurrence of
cryptic and endangered mycoheterotrophic orchid Galeola falconeri Hook.f. from western Himalaya. Indian Forester
143(7): 710–711.
Seidenfaden, G. & C.M. Arora (1982). An enumeration of the Orchids of
the north-western Himalaya. Nordic Journal of Botany 2: 7–27.
Singh, P., S.S. Dash, B.K. Sinha,
D.S. Rawat, S.K. Das, V. Kumar, S. Pandey, S. Lahiri,
D.S. Das & A. Banarjee (2019). Plants of Indian Himalayan
Region (An Annotated Checklist & Pictorial Guide) – Part 1. Botanical
Survey of India Kolkata, 760 pp.