''Oeceoclades beravensis'' 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 the southern and western

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 the sandy soils of western dry forests and wooded grasslands. This species has cane-like stems and forms dense clumps in the understorey, a feature that makes it unique among the Eulophiinae species found in Madagascar. Like other orchid species in ''Eulophia'' and ''Oeceoclades'' that are adapted to arid climates, ''O. beravensis'' has narrow and coriaceous (leathery and stiff, but flexible) leaves with minute

serration Serration is a saw-like appearance or a row of sharp or tooth-like projections. A serrated cutting edge has many small points of contact with the material being cut. By having less contact area than a smooth blade or other edge, the applied p ...

s. Because of habitat loss and existing threats to the dry forests and grasslands of Madagascar, ''O. beravensis'' was preliminarily assessed as "

Near Threatened A near-threatened species is a species which has been categorized as "Near Threatened" (NT) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as that may be vulnerable to endangerment in the near future, but it does not currently qualify fo ...

" using the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

guidelines. It was first described by the German botanist

Heinrich Gustav Reichenbach Heinrich Gustav Reichenbach (Dresden, 3 January 1823 – Hamburg, 6 May 1889) was a botanist and the foremost German orchidologist of the 19th century. His father Heinrich Gottlieb Ludwig Reichenbach (author of ''Icones Florae Germanicae et Helve ...

in 1881 as ''Eulophia beravensis'' and later moved to the genus ''Lissochilus'' 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 1941. It was overlooked by

Leslie Andrew Garay Leslie Andrew Garay (August 6, 1924 - August 19, 2016), born Garay László András, was an American botanist. He was the curator of the Oakes Ames Orchid Herbarium at Harvard University, where he succeeded Charles Schweinfurth in 1958. In 1957 h ...

and

Peter Taylor Peter Taylor may refer to: Arts * Peter Taylor (writer) (1917–1994), American author, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction * Peter Taylor (film editor) (1922–1997), English film editor, winner of an Academy Award for Film Editing Politi ...

when they reinstated the genus ''Oeceoclades'' in 1976 and finally transferred to that genus in 2014 by Ruth Bone and Sven Buerki.

References

beravensis Endemic flora of Madagascar Plants described in 1881 {{Cymbidieae-stub