A QUARTET OF PANAMANIAN MORMODES

THIS MONTH I WAS WORKING ON IDENTIFICATION OF A MORMODES AND IT INSPIRED ME TO ADD A PAGE TO THE BLOG ABOUT MORMODES. OVER THE PAST TWO YEARS, I HAVE RECEIVED SOME EXCELLENT PICTURES OF PANAMANIAN MORMODES FROM THREE PEOPLE. WITH THEIR PERMISSION AS NOTED ON THE PICTURES, I AM POSTING THEM FOR FELLOW LOVERS OF THE CATASETINAE.

DR. ROBERT DRESSLER IN HIS FIELD GUIDE TO THE ORCHIDS OF COSTA RICA AND PANAMA DISCUSSES THE CATASETINAE IN A CHAPTER TITLED "THE BIZARRE SUBTRIBES". I LIKE THAT DESCRIPTION BUT IF THE CATASETINAE ARE BIZARRE, THEN I THINK MORMODES IS PROBABLY THE MOST BIZARRE OF ALL WITH ITS ASYMETRICAL TWISTED COLUMN AND LIP. AFTER ALL, THE NAME MORMODES IS FROM THE GREEK MEANING RESEMBLING A FRIGHTFUL OBJECT, A HOBGOBLIN.

ACCORDING TO DR. GERARDO SALAZAR, THE ONLY EXPERT ON THE GENUS, THERE ARE SOME 80 SPECIES RANGING FROM MEXICO TO BOLIVIA AND BRAZIL. PANAMA HAS ADDITIONAL MORMODES SPECIES BUT I CHOOSE TO ONLY DEAL WITH FOUR OF THEM AT THIS TIME.

Mormodes hookeri 'Brent Baker' HCC/AOS owned by Brent Baker
Mormodes fractiflexa 'Ed Harris' CHM/AOS owned by Ed Harris

Mormodes punctata owned by Ed Harris
Mormodes colossa Eric Hunt http://www.orchidphotos.org

TWO NEW GENERA PROPOSED AS ADDITIONS TO THE SUBTRIBE

WELCOME TO THE SUBTRIBE TWO NEW GENERA AS PROPOSED BY THE AUTHORS OF THE RECENTLY PUBLISHED GENERA ORCHIDACEAUM VOLUME 5. THE PROPOSED NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ESTABLISHED FIVE MEMBERS OF THE SUBTRIBE, CATASETUM, CLOWESIA, CYCNOCHES, DRESSLERIA & MORMODES ARE GALEANDRA AND GROBYA. THE AUTHORS ADMIT THAT THIS MAY SEEM QUESTIONABLE BUT THEY SAY THEIR MOST RECENT MOLECULAR EVIDENCE SHOWS THAT THESE TWO GENERA ARE SISTER TO THE ESTABLISHED GROUP. SO WHO ARE THE NEW ADDITIONS? WE SHALL SEE HOW THIS ADDITION IS ACCEPTED.

Galeandra is a popular and widely-grown genus of some 40 species ranging from Florida to southern Brazil. The largest group are from Brazil. Two new species recently have been described from Brazil and they are available from my friend Vitorino Castro. To represent the genus this is a picture of Galeandra devoniana.

The other genus, Grobya, in contrast is a small genus of five species endemic to the Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest and is not widely cultivated outside Brazil. To represent the genus, above to the right, is a picture of Grobya amherstiae which is also available on the lists of my friend Vitorino Castro.

PREVIOUSLY, TAXONOMISTS HAVE PLACED BOTH GENERA, ALONG WITH CYRTOPODIUM IN OR NEAR THE CATASETINAE SO THIS IS NOT A COMPLETE SURPRISE AS HAVE BEEN SOME OF THE OTHER CHANGES FROM KEW. Over the next few years we shall see if this change is accepted in the orchid community but it is certainly worth notice.

AOS AWARD PICTURES 20000120 AND 20041849

THE AWARD PICTURES FOR 20000120 AND 20041849 ARE USED WITH PERMISSION FROM THE AOS AWARDS PROGRAM FOR EDUCATION PURPOSES ONLY AND ARE COPYRIGHTS OF THE PHOTOGRAPHERS JOHANNA T. WILLINK FOR 20000120 AND RHONDA PETERS FOR 20041849. CORRECTIONS TO THE AWARDS TO Catasetum rectangulare G.F.Carr HAVE BEEN PROPOSED.

Flowers awarded as Ctsm callosum var. album 20000120 left, 20041849 right

Name correction to AOS awards made as Ctsm callosum var. album

I believe that award 20041849, granted a CHM under the name Catasetum callosum var. album ‘MAJ’, is not Catasetum callosum but actually Catasetum rectangulare a new species which I described and published in 2005 when I was asked to verify provisional award 20051591 that had been granted in Miami as an album form of Catasetum poriferum Lindley. The description of the proposed new species and a brief account of my investigations were published in the Orchid Review vol. 114, no. 1267: 32-33, January-February 2006. In addition to comparing the flower to C. poriferum, Catasetum callosum Lindley was examined as a possibility. When I inquired about the flower with some Colombian friends, they said that in Colombia it was known as C. callosum var. album. A picture of a colored form of this species was published in Native Colombian Orchids Vol. 1: 59D – plant no. 48, 1994. In the same series Vol. 5, page 674D, plant no. 750 is the album form of the species as pictured in awards 20041849 and 20051591. A picture of the colored form is also found in The Orchid Picture Book 1995, page 8 identified as Catasetum callosum ‘Pecoso’.
Since the Colombians call these plants Catasetum callosum, horticulturally, we need to examine this species’ original description, drawings and published information.
Catasetum callosum was described by Lindley in 1840 in Edwards's Botanical Register 26(Misc.): 77
183. CATASETUM callosum ; petalis concoloribus lineari-lanceolatis sepalodorsali conformi suppositis, labello ovato-oblongo obtuso basin versussaccato supra saccum calo magno (aurantiaco) instructo margine obso-lete crenato, columnae acuminatae cirrhis vix ultra callum extensis.In habit this plant is exactly like Catasetum tridentatum,var. floribundum, but its flowers are quite different. Thesepals and petals are of a dull reddish brown, without spotsthe column is of the same colour, which may perhaps be bestcompared to that of old spoiled port wine. The lip is green,flat with a yellow tubercle near the base above the hollow,and a stain of the same colour near the apex. It was im-ported by Messrs. Loddiges from La Guayra, (no. 558).
In 1841, the following year, the description was republished with a drawing of the lip in Edwards’s Botanical Register vol. 27, t5
LOWER DRAWING ABOVE AT BEGINNING OF POST
1. Ctsm. callosum -The tumour-lipped Catasetum
2. C. cornutum -Horned Catasetum
3. C. barbatum var. proboscidium -Long-beaked Catasetum
4. C. laminatum var. eburneum -White-lipped Knife-blade Catasetum
5. C. lanciferum -Lance-bearing Catasetum
The tubercle for which the species is named is prominent and the obovate-triangular lip is notable in fig. 1.
Two more drawings are at the top above of the plant and partial inflorescences of Ctsm callosum which were published in Curtis’s Botanical Magazine, t4219 and t6648 from volume 108, September 1, 1882.

The text of t6648 follows:
CATASETUM Callosum. Native of Venezuela.
Nat. Ord. Orchideæ.—Tribe Vandeæ. Genus CATASETUM, Swartz; (Benth. et Hook.f. Gen, PI. vol. iii. p. 551, ined.)
Catasetum callosum; pseudobulbis oblongis vaginatis, foliis obovato-oblanceolatis acutis plicatis, racemis multifloris, scapo rachi ovariisque rufo-brunneis, perianthii foliolis elongato-lanceolatis concavis acuminatis brunneis, sepalo dorsali petalisque erectis parallelis contiguis, sepalis lateralibus deflexis parallelis v. paullo divaricatis, labello hastato-ovato-v.-lanceolato luride virescente purpureo maculate obtuso convexo basi dorso saccato, apicem versus subtrilobo, lobo intermedio producto recurvo, marginibus crenulatis, callo basi virescente v. flavido, colnmna aurantiaca in rostrum elongatum gracile erectum producta.
C. callosum, Lindl. in Bot. Reg. 1840; Misc. n. 183 and 1841, t. 5,f. 1; Rchb.f. in Walp. Ann. vol. v. p. 568.
A form of the Catasetum callosum has been figured in this work (Plate 4219) under the name of var. grandiflorum; it, however, differs from the original plant described by Lindley, and now pourtrayed here, more in colour and narrowness of leaf than in the size of the flower; for whereas in this the sepals and petals are of a rich brown, and the lip a uniform dull green speckled with red, in the var. grandiflorum the sepals and petals are pale dirty-yellow green, with red-brown tips, and the lip is of a bright verdigris green with purple edges and spots, a bright-red tip and red callus. There can, however, be no doubt as to the specific identity of these two plants. It would be more interesting to know whether this species presents the different sexual forms that some other species of the genus do, and upon which the genera Monachanthus and Myanthus were founded by Lindley, the former representing a female form, having a short column without the cirrhi, a perfect stigma, and imperfect pollinia, and the latter a hermaphrodite form, with a ciliate lip and perfect stigma and pollen. In the plant here figured I found the anther and stigma well developed, but the cirrhi were not sensitive, and the pollen masses were very small and apparently imperfect, whence I assume that this was a hermaphrodite form, with a functionally imperfect fertilizing apparatus.
C. callosum is a native of La-Guayra and Venezuela, from which latter country the specimen here figured was procured. It was presented to the Royal Gardens by Mr. Sander, of St. Albans, and flowered in the Orchid-house in December of last year. Other varieties are described as C. Lansburgii Lindl. (Lindl. and Paxt. Fl. Gard.vol. i.p. 156), and var. crenatum, Regel (Gartenfl. vol. v. p. 275).
Descr. Pseudobulbs two to three inches long, clothed with sheathes. Leaves six to ten inches long by two to three broad, narrowly obovate or oblanceolate, plaited and strongly nerved. Scape radical, short; raceme pendulous, many-flowered; rachis very stout, red-brown; bracts half an inch, oblong-lanceolate, membranous. Ovary one to one and a half inches, slender, curved, red-brown. Perianth three and a half inches long, segments all narrowly lanceolate, acuminate, concave, bright-brown. Dorsal sepal and two petals quite erect, parallel and contiguous; two lateral sepals deflexed, parallel or slightly diverging. Lip one inch long, cordate- or hastate-lanceolate, convex, dirty green, speckled with red, with a short gibbous sac at the base behind, margins slightly toothed; tip three-lobed, mid-lobe elongate and recurved; callus yellow or green. Column dirty yellow, as long as the lip, ending in a long, slender, erect beak.—J. D. II.
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The early drawings illustrate the variability in the lip of the species, but they also illustrate the common features that identify them all as Catasetum callosum Lindley – the large tubercle and the obovate-triangular lip in contrast to the rectangular lip of Ctsm. rectangulare which is found only in Colombia. No album form of true Ctsm. callosum has been published to my knowledge.
A final point emphasizes the identification of this award as correctly Ctsm rectangulare and not Ctsm callosum and is on page 80 of Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated, vol 2, Catasetum callosum “Fairly common in many parts of the Coastal Range of Venezuela, this orchid is notable for the great variety of forms of its lip. So variable is this element, in fact, that it is rare to find two plants whose flowers have lips similar in all details. The unusual nature of this dissimilarity gains emphasis when it is remembered that the shape of the lip is in most orchids a very constant factor and therefore a major guide to the identification of the species.” Reviewing the pictures of Ctsm rectangulare in both color forms, the lip is consistently rectangular in shape as cited in the original description and not variable among different clones.
Plants of what is now Catasetum rectangulare have been in US cultivation since at least 1999. I had two plants of this species at that time. They were sold under the name Catasetum callosum var. album and I have a number of slides of my plants from 1999. They came from Colombia. I was suspicious at the time that they were not C. callosum and I pickled several flowers and inflorescences which I still have in my personal herbarium. Because several years had passed when I received award 20051591 to identify, I did not remember the earlier plants.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Catasetum callosum Lindley
DUNSTERVILLE, G.C.K. & GARAY, L.A. Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated Vol. 2: 56, 57 drawings, 80 color plate, Catasetum callosum Lindl. 1962
The drawings found on page 57 are reproduced in Orchids of Venezuela An Illustrated Field Guide first edition page 80 and second edition page 75
ESCOBAR, R. editor Native Colombian Orchids vol. 5: 674, photographs B & C plants no. 748 & 749. 1994
LASSER, T. editor Flora de Venezuela - FOLDATS, E. ORCHIDACEAE Vol. XV, 4th part: 63-65 Catasetum callosum Lindl. 1970
BERRY, P.E., K. YATSKIEVYCH & B.K. HOLST. Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana Vol 7 – ROMERO-GONZALEZ, G.A. ORCHIDACEAE PART 20 CATASETUM: 263, 268 Catasetum callosum Lindl.
AOS AWARDS CORRECTLY IDENTIFIED IN THE AUTHOR’S OPINION AS Ctsm callosum:
19901074 Ctsm callosum ‘Katiusca’ CHM/AOS
19941175 Ctsm callosum ‘Debbie’s First’ CHM/AOS
19951710 Ctsm callosum ‘Milton Soloff’ CHM/AOS
20031851 Ctsm callosum ‘Stephen’s Pride’ HCC/AOS
20041255 Ctsm callosum ‘Sunset Valley Orchids; AM/AOS
Catasetum rectangulare G.F. Carr
Carr, G.F. The Orchid Review, vol. 114, no. 1267, January-February 2006: 33,34. Catasetum rectangulare A new species from Colombia.
Published as Catasetum callosum
ESCOBAR, R. editor Native Colombian Orchids Vol. 1: 59D – plant no. 48, 1994. In the same series Vol. 5, page 674D, plant no. 750
McDOWELL, D. The Orchid Picture Book: Catasetum callosum ‘Pecoso’ 1995: 8. - actually the colored form of C. rectangulare
SECOND AWARD
Award 20000120 granted a JC under the name of Catasetum callosum var. album is all female flowers. Because of the similarity of the female flowers among the species of Catasetum the establishment of the correct species is made only from the male flowers. As established, in my opinion, in my challenge to award 20041849, there is no true album form of Ctsm. callosum Lindley known and the plants that have been sold under this name are in fact Ctsm. rectangulare G.F.Carr. I would like to know if the male flowers of this clone were examined for verification of the species. If the male flowers were Ctsm rectangulare, then this award should be changed to Ctsm rectangulare. If the male flowers are some other species, I don’t know why it would have been called Ctsm. callosum var. album since according to Dunsterville & Garay, the female flowers of the species are green as are those of most Catasetum. If no verification of the male flowers is available, I think the name should be changed to Ctsm. rectangulare.
Bibliography
DUNSTERVILLE, G.C.K. & GARAY, L.A. Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated Vol. 2: 56, 57 drawings, 80 color plate, Catasetum callosum Lindl. 1962
Carr, G.F. The Orchid Review, vol. 114, no. 1267, January-February 2006: 33,34. Catasetum rectangulare A new species from Colombia.

Catasetum rectangulare pictures from the original description

Catasetum rectangulare GFCarr

Published originally and reproduced here with the permission of the Orchid Review, volume 114, no. 1267, Jan-Feb 2006, pages 32-33.

CATASETUM RECTANGULARE G.F. Carr sp. nov.
Summary
A new species of Catasetum L.C. Rich from Colombia, found in cultivation, is described.

Catasetum rectangulare G.F. Carr sp. nov.
TYPE: Colombia, locus incertus, flowered in cultivation 2005 from a group of plants originating from Colombia. With the help of Sr. Francisco Villegas Velez of Orquifollajes in Medellin, Colombia, it appears that this flower matchs that of a plant found the eastern Colombian Department of Arauca; however this identification cannot be stated as positive from photographs without comparing type specimens. Supplied by Mrs. Mercedes V. Steuerwald s.n. (Holotype: USF).

Latin diagnosis: Species haec Cataseto calloso Lindl. similes sed labello anguste rectangularis et sepalis lateralibus latis falcatis differt

Plant epiphyte. Pseudobulbs caespitose, fusiform, 6-8 cm long. Leaves not seen.
Inflorescence, male, arching from base of pseudobulb to 25 cm long. Flowers male,10, pale chartreuse yellow. Labellum vertically rectangular with distal triangular extention, slightly denticulate on sides, shallowly saccate 0.4 cm deep, 1.7cm long, 0.6 cm wide. Dorsal sepal erect, slightly concave 3.1 cm long, 0.6 cm wide. Lateral sepals falcate, slightly cupped, 2.7 cm long, 0.7 cm wide. Petals erect, convex to parallel and overlap margins of dorsal sepal, 2.5 cm long, 0.5 cm wide. Column arching, fleshy, 1.5 cm long, 0.6 cm wide with antennae 0.7 cm long, parallel extending over upper edge of lip, passing on each side of small central callus on lip. Female flower not seen.

Observations: Distinguished by the vertically rectangular lip and the falcate lateral sepals.

Background comments: On February 26, 2005, Mrs. Mercedes V. Steuerwald brought to the American Orchid Society West Palm Beach Judging Center a plant that had been purchased at the Miami International Orchid Fest tagged as Catasetum poriferum “alba” (sic.). A Certificate of Botanical Recognition was granted, an award that requires taxonomic verification. When the author received the flowers preserved in spirit, they were compared to the type description of Catasetum poriferum Lindley (Edwards's Botanical Register (28) 1838 Misc. 89). A copy of the drawing of the labellum of the type was obtained for comparison from the Kew Herbarium. These flowers did not match the type of Ctsm. poriferum and so they were compared to other species Catasetum especially those of the Catasetum callosum complex to which this species appears to belong. None of these species had the rectangular lip and falcate lateral sepals of this flower. It was established that the plant had come from Colombia. There are what appear to be a colored form similar to this species among the pictures in NATIVE COLOMBIAN ORCHIDS, volume 1 and an album form in volume 5 but they are erroneously identified as Catasetum callosum. Both of these pictures lack the strongly falcate lateral sepals of this species.

Dressleria dodsoniana - species of the month

I have decided to set up a blog to post pictures and articles and information that I find interesting about the Orchid subtribe Catasetinae and its members Catasetum, Cycnoches, Clowesia, Dressleria & Mormodes and anything else in the world of Orchids that I find of interest. I hope others will find my ramblings interesting. If you wish to contact me my email is catasetinae@verizon.net George

My choice species of the month is Dressleria dodsoniana from the eastern Amazonian part of Ecuador. The owner of the plant is Eric Sauer who sent me the pictures for identification of his plant. Beautiful job Eric. Thanks

posted Nov 10 2009

I am very happy to hear from Eric that he took his plant to the AOS judging last weekend in Cinncinati Ohio and received a Certificate of Horticultural Merit of 83 points. He gave it the clonal name 'Ecuadorian Fence Post' which is where he found the plant. I like people with a sense of humor. Congratulations Eric.