''Oeceoclades flavescens'' is a terrestrial
orchid 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 to northeastern
Madagascar.
[WCSP 2015]
World Checklist of selected plant families
The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Published on the internet. Accessed: 2015-6-15. It was first described by the French botanists
Jean Marie Bosser and Philippe Morat in 2001. The
type specimen was collected in 1954 from the wet undergrowth of a coastal forest near
Maroantsetra; it is the only known collection of this species. The
specific epithet
In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...
''flavescens'' refers to the pale yellow flowers.
[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.
Description
The conical
pseudobulbs are high and heteroblastic (derived from a single
internode). The
oblong to narrowly lanceolate leaves are long by wide, taper to a point, and have three to five primary longitudinal veins. There is a single papery leaf on each pseudobulb with a long
petiole with a joint about below the leaf blade.
Inflorescences are long, of which of that length is the
peduncle Peduncle may refer to:
*Peduncle (botany), a stalk supporting an inflorescence, which is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed
*Peduncle (anatomy), a stem, through which a mass of tissue is attached to a body
**Peduncle (art ...
. The inflorescence is a simple
raceme
A raceme ( or ) or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are produced as the s ...
with only 10 to 12 pale yellow flowers with purple streaks on the
labellum. The
sepals are long by wide and petals are long by wide. The four lobes of the labellum are rounded and the
spur is forward-projecting.
''Oeceoclades flavescens'' is similar to ''
O. pulchra'' but it is very distinctive in the papery leaves and the morphology of the labellum.
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q15478341
flavescens
Orchids of Madagascar
Endemic flora of Madagascar
Plants described in 2001