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Issue: Vol. 345 No. 1: 20 March 2018
Type: Article
Published: 2018-03-20
DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.345.1.6
Page range: 51–58
Abstract views: 55
PDF downloaded: 1

Cymbidium densiflorum (Orchidaceae; Epidendroideae; Cymbidieae): a new orchid species from China based on morphological and molecular evidence

College of Landscape Architecture, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China Shenzhen Key Laboratory for Orchid Conservation and Utilization, The National Orchid Conservation Center of China and The Orchid Conservation and Research Center of Shenzhen, Shenzhen, 518114, China
Shenzhen Key Laboratory for Orchid Conservation and Utilization, The National Orchid Conservation Center of China and The Orchid Conservation and Research Center of Shenzhen, Shenzhen, 518114, China
Shenzhen Key Laboratory for Orchid Conservation and Utilization, The National Orchid Conservation Center of China and The Orchid Conservation and Research Center of Shenzhen, Shenzhen, 518114, China
Shenzhen Key Laboratory for Orchid Conservation and Utilization, The National Orchid Conservation Center of China and The Orchid Conservation and Research Center of Shenzhen, Shenzhen, 518114, China
Shenzhen Key Laboratory for Orchid Conservation and Utilization, The National Orchid Conservation Center of China and The Orchid Conservation and Research Center of Shenzhen, Shenzhen, 518114, China
Shenzhen Key Laboratory for Orchid Conservation and Utilization, The National Orchid Conservation Center of China and The Orchid Conservation and Research Center of Shenzhen, Shenzhen, 518114, China
College of Landscape Architecture, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China Shenzhen Key Laboratory for Orchid Conservation and Utilization, The National Orchid Conservation Center of China and The Orchid Conservation and Research Center of Shenzhen, Shenzhen, 518114, China College of Forestry and Landscape Architecture, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510640, China
orchid flora of China orchid flora of Yunan Cymbidium section Cymbidium orchid phylogenetics Monocots

Abstract

A new orchid species, Cymbidium densiflorum, from Yunnan, China, is described and illustrated here based on morphological and molecular analyses. A detailed comparison between the newly discovered orchid and other members of Cymbidium was conducted. The new plant belongs to C. section Cymbidium and has a pendent inflorescence, thick-coriaceous flowers with two pollinia and rigid leaves, and it differs greatly from all other known species of this section by being a large plant bearing leaves with an acute, oblique apex and producing a long inflorescence with more than 30 purplish brown large flowers, in which the lateral sepals are oblique and narrowly elliptic with a tooth at the apex and narrowly ovate-elliptic petals. A molecular study based on the nuclear ribosomal ITS and plastid matK, rbcL, trnG, trnL and atpI DNA sequence data indicated that C. densiflorum is sister to C. paucifolium.