Background: During an ongoing inventory of the orchids of the Bosque de Protección Alto Mayo, northern Peru, a population morphologically assignable to Liparis section Decumbentes was found. This is a little-known group restricted to wet montane Andean forests and consists of four species, from which the BPAM populations differs in leaf and labellum morphology.
Hypotheses: The features of the plants led us to hypothesize that it represents an unknown species, which can be distinguished morphologically from its congeners.
Taxon: Liparis section Decumbentes, Liparis sp. nov.
Study site and dates: Peru, department of San Martín, Rioja province, Pardo Miguel Naranjos district, Bosque de Protección Alto Mayo, sector Venceremos.
Methods: The unknown entity was studied in detail using fresh, pressed, and alcohol-preserved specimens. We also compared it to type specimens, other specimens of Liparis section Decumbentes housed in herbaria in Peru and abroad, and with descriptions from specialized literature.
Results: A leaf feature and the unique labellum morphology of the unknown entity permit it to be distinguished clearly from all other species of Liparis section Decumbentes.
Conclusions: The new species shares with L. sessilis the sessile leaf blades and the convex labellum, but differs from it and all other species of the section in its saddle-shaped labellum, which when spread out is narrowly obtrapezoid, with minute basal auricles, laciniate distal margins, and the apex projected into a narrowly triangular lobe.
Liparis altomayoënsissp. nov. is described, illustrated, and tentatively assigned to the Neotropical section Decumbentes on the basis of its branching, prostrate rhizomes and upright stems bearing several leaves. Vegetatively, the new species is distinguished by its short, upward stems bearing 3–6 leaves, these with undulate, translucent margins and reticulate, prominent veining on the upper surface. Florally, it is distinctive in the labellum with fleshy basal one-half provided with a central, rounded cavity limited on each side by a prominent, bilobulate ridge and apically by a lunate ridge, and membranaceous, trilobulate apical one-half deflexed ca. 90°. In contrast with other species of section Decumbentes, in which fruit formation is infrequent, in L. altomayoënsis a high proportion (⁓50–100%) of flowers develop into a fruit; in some flowers the pollinaria rotate and contact the stigma, apparently resulting in at least facultative self-pollination. The main differences among the six species of L. section Decumbentes hitherto known are contrasted in a dichotomous key. The new species is known only from three populations located in the Bosque de Protección Alto Mayo, on the Amazonian slope of the Andes in northeastern Peru but appears to be under no foreseeable threats.
Abstract—Telipogon chachapoyensis is described as a new species. It is similar to Telipogon microglossus. We provide a description, illustrations, pictures, and information about the habitat of this new species. Furthermore, we present information
and discuss the identity and occurrence of species morphologically similar to Telipogon chachapoyensis, which we call the Telipogon microglossus group, a distinct group among the Telipogon. We also transfer a recently described species, Stellilabium latialatum,
to Telipogon.
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