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| Maxillaria anacatalinaportillae Szlach. & Lipińska, in Lipińska, Olędrzyńska, Portilla, ... et Szlachetko, 2022. |
Abstract
Neotropical genus Maxillaria Ruiz & Pav. belongs to one of the most diverse and species-rich groups of orchids. Several of its representatives are popular, horticultural plants with large and showy flowers, often nicely fragranced. It is not uncommon that some distinctly colored individuals are introduced to the commercial market under names of similar, more or less related species, as informal varieties or color forms, largely causing confusion. While investigating the diversity of Maxillaria in Ecuador, we have encountered plants that were commercially referred to as M. sanderiana xanthina. In the course of conducted morphological and micromorphological analyses, we concluded that it is a new, separate species and hereby, we describe it as M. anacatalinaportillae.
Keywords: Ecuador, Neotropics, orchids, phylogeny, pseudopollen, SEM
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| Drawing of the flower parts of Maxillaria anacatalinaportillae Szlach. & Lipińska. A flower B general habit C lip D dorsal sepal E petal F lateral sepal. Scale bars: 5 cm (A); 10 cm (B); 10 mm (C-F). Drawn by N. Olędrzyńska from the holotype. |
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| Maxillaria anacatalinaportillae Szlach. & Lipińska, A complete flower B column C pollinia and anther cap D side view of the column and lip E perianth parts F lip G habit. (Phot. Hugo Medina). |
Maxillaria anacatalinaportillae Szlach. & Lipińska, sp. nov.
Diagnosis: M. anacatalinaportillae appears to be similar to M. grandis, M. sanderiana and M. wojii. The new entity can be easily separated from M. grandis Rchb.f. by having flat margins of petals, which are gently angled (vs undulate and strongly recurved petals), longer lip callus extending beyond the middle of the lip (vs lip callus not reaching lip middle point) and form of lip middle lobe, which is broadly cordate or triangular when spread, with fold down margins (vs lip middle lobe oblong-elliptic, with undulate and planar margins). The lip middle lobe of M. sanderiana has strongly undulated and planar margins, and petals are shorter than dorsal sepal (vs equal in length in our new species). Maxillaria wojii can be easily distinguished from all other species mentioned above by unique lip callus, consisting of the main part flanked by pair of subsidiary calli. Lip callus of M. anacatalinaportillae is very massive flanked by narrow wings on each side.
Ecology and distribution: Grows as an epiphyte in cloud rainforest at altitude of 1700 m asl, known only from the type location.
Eponymy: Name dedicated to Ana Catalina Portilla Schröder – daughter of Alex Portilla, finder of the new entity.
Monika M. Lipińska, Natalia Olędrzyńska, Alex Portilla, Dorota Łuszczek, Aidar A. Sumbembayev and Dariusz L. Szlachetko. 2022. Maxillaria anacatalinaportillae (Orchidaceae, Maxillariinae), A New Remarkable Species from Ecuador. PhytoKeys. 190: 15-33. DOI: 10.3897/phytokeys.190.77918
