''Ponerorchis secundiflora'' (

synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are all ...

''Neottianthe secundiflora'') is a species of

plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclud ...

in the 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 ...

. It is native from the

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 100 ...

to China.

Taxonomy

The species was described by Joseph Dalton Hooker in 1890, under the name "''Habenaria secundiflora''". However, this name had already been used for a different species in 1881, so was illegitimate. The species was first legitimately named in 1898 by Friedrich Kraenzlin as ''Peristylus secundiflorus''. It was later transferred to ''

Gymnadenia ''Gymnadenia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the orchid family (Orchidaceae) containing 22 terrestrial species. The former genus ''Nigritella'' is now included in ''Gymnadenia''. They can be found in damp meadows, fens and marshes, and on ch ...

'' and then to ''Neottianthe''. A

molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

study in 2014 found that species of ''Neottianthe'', ''Amitostigma'' and ''

Ponerorchis ''Ponerorchis'' is a genus of Asian terrestrial tuberous orchids (family Orchidaceae). It is native to temperate Eurasia, from Poland to Japan, to the north of the Indian subcontinent and to northern Indochina. They can be found in evergreen for ...

'' were mixed together in a single

clade A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English term, ...

, making none of the three genera

monophyletic In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic gro ...

as then

circumscribed In geometry, the circumscribed circle or circumcircle of a polygon is a circle that passes through all the vertices of the polygon. The center of this circle is called the circumcenter and its radius is called the circumradius. Not every polyg ...

. ''Neottianthe'' and ''Amitostigma'' were subsumed into ''Ponerorchis'', with this species becoming ''Ponerorchis secundiflora''.

Distribution

''Ponerorchis secundiflora'' is native to the

, including

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...

and the Assam region. Its range extends to

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

and south-central China (west

Sichuan Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...

and north-west

Yunnan Yunnan , () is a landlocked Provinces of China, province in Southwest China, the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is ...

References

secundiflora Plants described in 1898 Flora of Assam (region) Flora of East Himalaya Flora of Myanmar Flora of Nepal Flora of South-Central China Flora of Tibet Flora of West Himalaya {{Orchidoideae-stub