''Oeceoclades ambrensis'' is a terrestrial

orchid Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowering ...

species in the genus ''

Oeceoclades ''Oeceoclades'', collectively known as the monk orchids, is a genus of flowering plants from the orchid family, Orchidaceae. It is related to '' Eulophia'' and like that genus is mostly terrestrial in habit. A few species extend into very arid en ...

'' that is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to northern

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

, where it grows in humid forests at altitudes of . It was first described by the French botanist

Joseph Marie Henry Alfred Perrier de la Bâthie Joseph Marie Henry Alfred Perrier de la Bâthie (11 August 1873 – 2 October 1958) was a French botanist who specialized in the plants of Madagascar. He is the nephew of Eugène Pierre Perrier de la Bâthie, (1825-1916), another botanist, who als ...

in 1951 as ''Lissochilus ambrensis'' and moved to the genus ''Eulophia'' in 1975 by Friedhelm Reinhold Butzin. It was last transferred to the genus ''Oeceoclades'' in 2001 by

Jean Marie Bosser Jean Marie Bosser (23 December 1922 – 6 December 2013), sometimes listed as Jean-Michel Bosser was a French botanist and agricultural engineer who worked extensively in Madagascar and Mauritius. Bosser was a researcher at the Laboratoire de Pha ...

and Philippe Morat. The

type specimen In biology, a type is a particular wiktionary:en:specimen, specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to a ...

was collected in 1924 from

montagne d'Ambre Montagne d'Ambre National Park is a national park in the Diana Region of northern Madagascar. The park is known for its endemic flora and fauna, water falls and crater lakes. It is north of the capital, Antananarivo and is one of the most biolog ...

, now a part of

Amber Mountain National Park Montagne d'Ambre National Park is a national park in the Diana Region of northern Madagascar. The park is known for its endemic flora and fauna, water falls and crater lakes. It is north of the capital, Antananarivo and is one of the most biolog ...

. The

pseudobulb The pseudobulb is a storage organ found in many epiphytic and terrestrial sympodial orchids. It is derived from a thickening of the part of a stem between leaf nodes and may be composed of just one internode or several, termed heteroblastic and ...

s are fusiform (spindle-shaped) and homoblastic (created from several

internodes A stem is one of two main structural axes of a vascular plant, the other being the root. It supports leaves, flowers and fruits, transports water and dissolved substances between the roots and the shoots in the xylem and phloem, stores nutrien ...

). ''Oeceoclades ambrensis'' is most similar to '' O. pulchra'' but it differs in the structure of the labellum, having rounded lobes.Bosser, J., and P. Morat. 2001
Contribution à l'étude des Orchidaceae de Madagascar et des Mascareignes. XXXI. Espèces et combinaisons nouvelles dans les genres ''Oeceoclades'', ''Eulophia'' et ''Eulophiella''.
''Adansonia'', 23(1): 7-22.

References

ambrensis Endemic flora of Madagascar Plants described in 1951 {{Cymbidieae-stub