''Otoglossum'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

s from the orchid family,

Orchidaceae 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 ...

, native to

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

and

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

.Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
/ref>Jenny, R. (2010). ''Otoglossum'', una revisión taxonómica. Orquideología 27: 63-95.

Description

They are plants of ovoid pseudobulbs spaced in long, along a creeping or ascending upward rhizomes, with thick and tanned leathery leaves. The inflorescence is axillary, racemosa, erect, starting from the sheaths of the pseudobulbs, racemous, erect, with many rather large and wavy or curly, rounded flowers. The petals and sepals have similar shapes and sizes, with very frizzy, oval, large margins, somewhat concave. The lip is inserted at the base of the column. The spine is short, sometimes with dorsal calluses. The spine is short, apodes, sometimes with dorsal calluses before the stigmatic cavity, small wings or auricles, and terminal anther somewhat inserted under the terminal margins of the spine.

Taxonomy

In 2001

Mark W. Chase Mark Wayne Chase (born 1951) is a US-born British botanist. He is noted for work in plant classification and evolution, and one of the instigators of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group-classification for flowering plants which is partly based on DNA ...

and Norris Williams subordinated the ''Oncidium'' section ''Serpentia'' to ''Otoglossum''. The species in this section, '' Oncidium serpens'', '' Oncidium sanctipauli'', '' Oncidium harlingii'' and '' Oncidium globuliferum'', have few and widely spaced flowers at first glance, very similar to those of '' Oncidium varicosum'', long repeating rhizomes like those of ''

Rodriguezia ''Rodriguezia'', abbreviated Rdza. in the horticultural trade, is a genus of orchids. It consists of 49 known species, native to tropical America from southern Mexico and the Windward Islands south to Argentina, with many of the species endemic t ...

'', show frequent sprouting of new plants in the nodules of ancient floral stems, and morphologically have little in common with ''Otoglossum'' other than the scandal habit.

Species

Distribution

''Otoglossum'', according to its new definition already expanded to include the aforementioned section of ''Oncidium'', then groups about thirteen epiphytic species, occasionally terrestrial, in rule of scandal growth, that inhabit humid, fresh and cold mountainous areas from Costa Rica to Peru until the altitude of three thousand meters, over trees or rocky escarpments. Three species registered for Brazil, two belonging to the old section of Odontoglossum and one to Oncidium.

References

External links

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q3906248 Oncidiinae genera Oncidiinae