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| Lecanorchis moritae Suetsugu & T.C.Hsu
in Suetsugu, Kaida, Hsu & Sawa, 2019.
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Abstract
A new species of the mycoheterotrophic genus Lecanorchis Blume (Orchidaceae), Lecanorchis moritae, is described from Amami-Oshima Island, Japan. It is most similar to L. suginoana but differs in having a transversely elliptic (slightly contracted at base) midlobe (vs. semiorbicular, not contracted at base), more triangular with almost entire margins (vs. relatively rounded, denticulate margins) and reddish apices (vs. somewhat whitish apices) and a lip with white and purple hairs (vs. white and lemon yellow hairs) and sparse unicellular papillae scattered on the disc (vs. dense unicellular papillae). An illustration and nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (nrITS) sequence (i.e., DNA barcode) of the new species are also provided.
Keywords: DNA barcodes, Japanese flora, holomycoheterotrophic plants, nrITS, new orchid species, Ryukyu Islands, vanilloid orchids, Monocots
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| FIGURE 1. Lecanorchis moritae from the type locality. A. Flowering plant. B–D. Flower. E. Free portion of midlobe of the lip. F. Lip, column and lateral sepals. G. Close-up of side lobe of the lip and column. Photography by Hidekazu Morita. |
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| FIGURE 2. Lecanorchis moritae (drawn from the holotype). A. Habit. B. Flower and pedicellate ovary. C–D. Lip and column. E. Dorsal sepal. F. Lateral petal. G. Lateral sepal. H. Flattened lip. I. Column. J. Anther cap. K. Adaxial hairs on apical part of midlobe of the lip, showing the papillate apices. L. Adaxial hairs on central part of midlobe of the lip. A–B. Bar = 1 cm. C–H. Bar = 3 mm. I–L. Bar = 1 mm. Drawing by Kumi Hamasaki. |
Lecanorchis moritae Suetsugu & T.C.Hsu, sp. nov.
Type:— JAPAN. Ryukyu Islands: Kagoshima Pref., Amami-Oshima Island, Amami City, Naze, 13 May 2018, Morita N17-01 (holotype: TNS!, a flower in the spirit collection).
Lecanorchis moritae is closely related and morphologically similar to L. suginoana, but differs from the latter in having a transversely elliptic lip midlobe, more triangular, entire margins of the side lobes with reddish apices, white and purple hairs on the lip and sparse unicellular papilla scattered on disc.
Distribution, phenology and conservation status:— To date, the distribution of Lecanorchis moritae appears to be restricted to two localities separated by ca. 13 km. Both populations grow under humid evergreen broadleaf forest dominated by Castanopsis sieboldii (Makino 1910: 232) Hatusima (1971: 223; Fagaceae). Each population contains less than ten flowering plants, and currently we are not aware of any other locality where this species exists. Therefore, L. moritae should be assigned a risk of extinction of “critically endangered” [CR D1] following the categories of IUCN (2012).
Etymology:— Named for Hirokazu Morita, who collected the type specimens.
Kenji Suetsugu, Shingo Kaida, Tian-Chuan Hsu and Shinichiro Sawa. 2019. Lecanorchis moritae (Orchidaceae, Vanilloideae), A New Mycoheterotrophic Species from Amami-Oshima Island, Japan, based on Morphological and Molecular Data. Phytotaxa. 404(4); 137–145. DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.404.4.2
