In 2011-2012 a series of series
of rescue expeditions recovered and relocated around 105 000 epiphytic plants (plants
which live on other plants, typically the branches of canopy trees) from the
site of the planned Teles Pires Power Plant, which straddles the borders
between Paranaíta County in Mato Grosso State and Jacareacanga County in Pará
State on the banks of the River Teles Pires. This area is poorly explored by
botanists, despite being an area high biodiversity, and many new species were
discovered during this operation.
In a paper published in the
journal Phytotaxa on 27 March 2015, Adarilda Petini-Benelli of the Instituto de
Biociências at the Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso and Célia Regina Araújo
Soares-Lopes of the Herbário da Amazônia Meridional at the Universidade do Estado de Mato Grosso describe a new species of epiphytic Orchid from the Teles
Pires Power Plant site.
The new species is placed in the
genus Catasetum, which currently
contains at least 130 species of epiphytic Orchids with many undiscovered
species thought likely to be present in unexplored areas of the Amazon, and
given the specific name telespirense,
in reference to the area where it was found. Catasetum telespirense is an epiphytic herb consisting of a 10-18
cm pseudobulb with 5-7 narrow leaves 20-45 cm in length growing from its base.
These leaves are generally shed before the production of the inflorescence
(flower-stem), also from the base of the plant. This is 20-45 cm in length and
bears 2-10 fragrant yellow or yellow-green flowers 40-45 mm in width.
Male flowers from three specimens of the Catasetum telespirense showing different colours and lip forms. Adarilda
Petini-Benelli in Petini-Benelli & Soares-Lopes (2015).
Catasetum telespirense was observed in the wild only at the Teles
Pires Power Plant site, which is now lost to development. However discussions
with Orchid collectors in Guarantã and Paranaíta Counties in Mato Grosso State
and Jacareacanga County in Pará State
revealed that many had specimens of this plant, which most claimed had been
collected from sites designated for development, in order to protect the
plants, though one collector did admit collecting specimens from an unthreatened
site. Clearly both urban development and unregulated collecting of the plants
have implications for the conservation of Catasetum
telespirense, and Petini-Benelli & Soares-Lopes suggest that the Orchid
should be listed as Endangered under the terms of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species, due to the limited
known range of the species, the low number of specimens recorded within this
area, and the threats posed to the species by human activity.
Catasetum telespirense, general
view of the plant flowering and without leaves, male flowers. Alexandre da
Silva Medeiros in Petini-Benelli & Soares-Lopes (2015).
See also…
Orchids of the genus Liparis are found across tropical Asia, New Guinea, the islands of the southwest Pacific and tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas. There are currently sixty five species known to grow...
Orchids of the genus Gastrodia are found across temperate and tropical Asia, Oceania and Madagascar. They are mycoheterotrophs; parasitic plants which obtain nutrients and sugars from Mycorrhizal Fungi(Fungi which normally form symbiotic...
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature published its annual update of its Red List of Threatened Species on Thursday 12 June 2014, marking the 50th year of the list's existence, and revising the status of a number of Plant and Animal species from around the...
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