Friday 1 April 2022

Epidendrum alejandrinae: A new species of Orchid from the high Andean forests of central Peru.

The tropical forests of the high Andes form one of the world's biodiversity hotspots, with the forests located in the eastern cordillera of the Peruvian Andes being particularly rich in endemic species. These unique ecosystems are threatened by Human activities such as agriculture and mining, and are considered to be particularly at risk from climate change. This is particularly true of high-altitude forests dominated by trees and shrubs of the genera Polylepis, Gynoxys, and Escallonia, which are noted for their high biodiversity but which have become highly fragmented.

The Huancavelica region is considered to be poorly explored, botanically speaking, but is considered to be a hotspot for Orchid diversity, with an estimated 200 species within the 50 km² of the Amaru-Huachocolpa-Chihuana Cloud Forest Regional Conservation Area. Epidendroid Orchids, Epidendroideae, are the largest subfamily of Orchids, with over 15 000 described species, more than all other Orchid groups combined. The majority of these species are epiphytic (live on other plants, typically in the canopy of rainforest trees), though terrestrial forms are known. The group is found across the globe, with the exception of the polar regions, the deserts of Africa, Arabia and Australia, and the southern part of South America. The genus Epidendrum, which gives its name to the group, is one of the most speciose Orchid genera, with an estimated 480 described species in Peru alone, found at altitudes ranging from sealevel to 4200 m.

In a paper published in the journal Phytotaxa on 29 March 2022, Harold Rusbelth Quispe-Melgar of the Programa de Investigación de Ecología y Biodiversidad at Asociación ANDINUS, and the Universidad Continental, Yashira Stefani Llacua-Tineo of the Facultad de Ciencias Forestales y del Ambiente at the Universidad Nacional del Centro del Perú, Fressia Nathalie Ames-Martínez, also of the Programa de Investigación de Ecología y Biodiversidad at Asociación ANDINUS, and the Universidad Continental, David Huayta, also of the Facultad de Ciencias Forestales y del Ambiente at the Universidad Nacional del Centro del Perú, Katherine Lucero Lagones Poma of the Facultad de Ciencias Forestales at the Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina, and Eric Hágsater of Herbario AMO, describe a new species of Epidendrum from Peru, in a high Andean forest dominated by trees of the genus Polylepis (a type of Rosid reaching 15-20 m tall, found at mid-high altitudes in the tropical Andes) in the Huancavelica region of Peru.

The new species is named Epidendrum alejandrinae, in honour of the late Alejandrina Melgar Sotomayor (1957-2020), mother of Harold Rusbelth Quispe-Melgar, for her great passion for plants and their flowers. It is described from a single specimen found growing as an epiphyte on a tree of the genus Gynoxys (a type of Asterid widely distributed in South America) at an altitude of 3900 m, in an area of woodland surrounded by a matrix of grassland, near the Judas lagoon, in the middle Mantaro river basin, approximately 20 km from the Amaru-Huachocolpa-Chihuana Cloud Forest RCA.

 
Epidendrum alejandrinae. (A), (B) Habit and complete plant. (C). Flowers. (D), (E) Habitat. Katherine Lucero Lagones Poma & Harold Rusbelth Quispe-Melgar in Quispe-Melgar et al. (2022).

Epidendrum alejandrinae is an epiphytic Orchid, forming clusters of pendant herbaceous Plants, growing from short, rhizomatous roots. The whole plant has a length of about 30 cm. Leaves are lance-shaped, green, 8-12 cm long and 1-1.6 cm wide. Flowers are green, and born in clusters of 15-25, of which at most about 10 will be open at any one time. These are born on bracts 8-10 mm long, with the whole inflorescence being roughly 8-12.5 cm long. Flowering has been observed in August.

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