Wullschlaegelia

Wullschlaegelia aphylla (Fig. I), Wullschlaegelia calcarata (Fig. II)

The genus Wullschlaegelia from the orchid family (Orchidaceae) consists of two types. They are found in tropical America, there are leafless, mykoheterotrophe plants.

Description

The Wullschlaegelia species are herbaceous plants of 30 to 40 cm in height, they are leafless and feed mykoheterotroph. The rhizome is short and ascending. The roots are partly fusiform tuberous thickened ( these roots have a velamen ), some thin and fibrous. The shoot is upright and bears at intervals some scale-like leaves down. The whole plant, including the flowers is densely covered with branched trichomes.

The inflorescence is occupied quite dense with many flowers. The ovary is stalked. The flowers can be 'upside down or not, its color is white. Sepals and petals are to each other and form a tube. The dorsal sepal is free, it is oval to broadly lanceolate, concave, it ends pointed. The lateral sepals put on to the clearly designed pedestal at the base, they form a sac-like protuberance. The petals are free, they are similar to the dorsal sepal. The lip is elongated, front wide, unlobed, concave. She sits on without separating tissue or joint on the column. The column is very short, it extends well beyond the point of attachment to the ovary out ( " pillar "). The scar is sitting in a ciliated pit. The stamen is slightly bent down towards the column axis. It contains two pollinia, they are powdery, grainy with a clear viscid disc ( Viscidium ), but without stalks. The separation between scar tissue and stamen ( rostellum ) is stalked and straight, it ends bilobed.

Dissemination

The species of the genus Wullschlaegelia are widespread in tropical South and Central America and the Caribbean.

Systematics and botanical history

The genus Wullschlaegelia was erected in 1863 by Heinrich Gustav Reichenbach. The only way known to him, Wullschlaegelia aphylla, was described in 1788 by Olof Peter Swartz as Cranichis aphylla. The description of the second kind, Wullschlaegelia calcarata, was published in 1881 by George Bentham. The name Wullschlaegelia honors the missionary and plant collector Heinrich Rudolf Wullschlägel ( 1805-1864 ).

The relationship of Wullschlaegelia is unclear. As a related genus Uleiorchis was often called. Robert Dressler presented Wullschlaegelia in the tribe Gastrodieae; but the Gastrodieae have no velamen. First molecular genetic studies suggest an association with the tribe Calypsoeae.