''Ponthieva'' (commonly called shadow witch) is a genus 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 ...

). They are named after

Henry de Ponthieu Henry de Ponthieu (14 February 1731 – 10 December 1808) was a London merchant of Huguenot ancestry who collected fish and plant specimens from the West Indies for botanist Joseph Banks Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, (19 June 1820) was an En ...

, an English merchant of

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...

ancestry who sent West Indian plant collections to Sir

Joseph Banks Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, (19 June 1820) was an English naturalist, botanist, and patron of the natural sciences. Banks made his name on the 1766 natural-history expedition to Newfoundland and Labrador. He took part in Captain James ...

in 1778. ''Ponthieva'' is widely distributed in the southeastern

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

, and

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...

from

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

.Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
/ref>Flora of North America v 26 p 547, ''Ponthieva'' R. Brown, Hortus Kew. 5: 199. 1813.
/ref>Carnevali F., G., J. L. Tapia-Muñoz, R. Jiménez-Machorro, L. Sánchez-Saldaña, L. Ibarra-González, I. M. Ramírez & M. P. Gómez. 2001. Notes on the flora of the Yucatan Peninsula II: a synopsis of the orchid flora of the Mexican Yucatan Peninsula and a tentative checklist of the Orchidaceae of the Yucatan Peninsula biotic province. Harvard Papers in Botany 5(2): 383–466. They are mainly terrestrial plants with sympodial growth, but some are

epiphyte An epiphyte is an organism that grows on the surface of a plant and derives its moisture and nutrients from the air, rain, water (in marine environments) or from debris accumulating around it. The plants on which epiphytes grow are called phoroph ...

s. Their fibrous root show long and soft hairs. Some of the branches are thickened. The simple

stem Stem or STEM may refer to: Plant structures * Plant stem, a plant's aboveground axis, made of vascular tissue, off which leaves and flowers hang * Stipe (botany), a stalk to support some other structure * Stipe (mycology), the stem of a mushro ...

grows from

rhizome In botany and dendrology, a rhizome (; , ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and shoots from its nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from axillary buds and grow hori ...

s and carries thin, basal

leaves A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...

with a slight to a somewhat longer stalk. The few to many, erect

flower A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechani ...

s grow on bracteate peduncles in a terminal

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 ...

. Their dorsal

sepal A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 The term ''sepalum'' was coined b ...

is slightly joined to the

petal Petals are modified Leaf, leaves that surround the reproductive parts of flowers. They are often advertising coloration, brightly colored or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. All of the petals of a flower are collectively known as the ''c ...

s at the apex. The petals are free or sometimes fused to lower flanks of the

column A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member. ...

. The lateral sepals are distinct or joined. The clawed lip is fused to the base of the short

. This is semiterete, i.e. in the form of a cylinder, rounded on one side and flat on the other. It is slightly winged towards the pointed apex. There are four, yellow, club-shaped pollinia that are joined in pairs.

Species

Species accepted as of June 2014: # '' Ponthieva andicola'' Rchb.f. (1876) (Ecuador) # '' Ponthieva appendiculata'' Schltr. (1915) (Ecuador) # '' Ponthieva bicornuta'' C.Schweinf. (1951) (Peru) # '' Ponthieva brenesii'' Schltr. (1923) (Costa Rica, Panama) # '' Ponthieva brittoniae'' Ames (1910) : Britton's Shadow Witch (Florida, Bahamas, Cuba) # '' Ponthieva campestris'' (Liebm.) Garay (1995) (Mexico) # '' Ponthieva collantesii'' D.E.Benn. & Christenson (1998) (Peru) # '' Ponthieva cornuta'' Rchb.f. (1876) (Bolivia) # '' Ponthieva curvilabia'' Garay (1978) (Ecuador) # ''

Ponthieva cuyujana ''Ponthieva'' (commonly called shadow witch) is a genus from the orchid family (Orchidaceae). They are named after Henry de Ponthieu, an English merchant of Huguenot ancestry who sent West Indian plant collections to Sir Joseph Banks in 1778. ' ...

'' Dodson & Hirtz (1989) (Ecuador) # '' Ponthieva diptera'' Linden & Rchb.f. (1854) : Two-winged Ponthieva (Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, Guyana, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru) # '' Ponthieva disema'' Schltr. (1915) (Ecuador) # '' Ponthieva dunstervillei'' Foldats (1968) (Venezuela) # '' Ponthieva elegans'' (Kraenzl.) Schltr. (1912) (Bolivia) # '' Ponthieva ephippium'' Rchb.f. (1857) (Mexico, Guatemala) # '' Ponthieva fertilis'' (F.Lehm. & Kraenzl.) Salazar (2009) (Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru) # '' Ponthieva formosa'' Schltr. (1923) (Mexico, Central America) # '' Ponthieva garayana'' Dodson & R.Vásquez (1989) (Bolivia) # '' Ponthieva gimana'' Dodson (2003) (Ecuador) # '' Ponthieva gracilis'' Renz (1948) (Colombia) # '' Ponthieva hameri'' Dressler (1998) (El Salvador) # '' Ponthieva hassleri'' Schltr. (1920) (Paraguay) # '' Ponthieva hildae'' R.González & Soltero (1991) (Mexico) # '' Ponthieva inaudita'' Rchb.f. (1876) : Unheard Ponthieva (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru) # '' Ponthieva insularis'' Dressler (2005) (Galapagos Islands) # '' Ponthieva keraia'' Garay & Dunst. (1976) (Venezuela, Ecuador) # '' Ponthieva lilacina'' C.Schweinf. (1941) (Peru) # '' Ponthieva maculata'' Lindl. (1845) : Spotted Ponthieva (Venezuela, Ecuador) # '' Ponthieva mandonii'' Rchb.f. (1878) (Peru to NW Argentina) # '' Ponthieva mexicana'' (A.Rich. & Galeotti) Salazar (2009) (Mexico, Guatemala) # '' Ponthieva microglossa'' Schltr. (1920) (Colombia) # '' Ponthieva nigricans'' Schltr. (1917) (Ecuador) # '' Ponthieva oligoneura'' Schltr. (1921) (Peru) # '' Ponthieva ovatilabia'' C.Schweinf. (1961) (Venezuela, Guyana) # '' Ponthieva parvilabris'' (Lindl.) Rchb.f. (1878) : Small-lipped Ponthieva (Venezuela, Ecuador) # '' Ponthieva parvula'' Schltr. (1912) (Mexico, Guatemala) # '' Ponthieva pauciflora'' (Sw.) Fawc. & Rendle (1910) (Caribbean) # '' Ponthieva petiolata'' Lindl., Bot. Reg. 9: t. 760 (1824) (Lesser Antiles) # '' Ponthieva phaenoleuca'' (Barb.Rodr.)

Cogn. Célestin Alfred Cogniaux (7 April 1841 – 15 April 1916) was a Belgian botanist. Amongst other plants, the genus '' Neocogniauxia'' of orchids is named after him. In 1916 his enormous private herbarium was acquired by the National Botanic ...

in C.F.P.von Martius & auct. suc. (eds.) (1895) (Brazil) # '' Ponthieva pilosissima'' (Senghas) Dodson (1996) : Hairy Ponthieva (Ecuador) # '' Ponthieva pseudoracemosa'' Garay (1978) (Ecuador, Peru) # '' Ponthieva pubescens'' (C.Presl) C.Schweinf. (1970) (Ecuador, Peru, Brazil) # '' Ponthieva pulchella'' Schltr. (1918) (Mexico, Guatemala) # '' Ponthieva racemosa'' (Walter) C.Mohr : Hairy Shadow Witch, Racemose Ponthieva (SE USA, Mexico, tropical America) # '' Ponthieva rinconii'' Salazar (2005) (Mexico) # '' Ponthieva rostrata'' Lindl. (1845) (Ecuador, Peru) # '' Ponthieva schaffneri'' (Rchb.f.) E.W.Greenw. (1990) (Mexico, Guatemala) # '' Ponthieva similis'' C.Schweinf. (1941) (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru) # '' Ponthieva sprucei'' Cogn. in C.F.P.von Martius & auct. suc. (eds.) (1895) (Peru) # '' Ponthieva sylvicola'' Rchb.f. (1876) (Ecuador) # '' Ponthieva triloba'' Schltr. (1910) : Three-lobed Lip Ponthieva (Mexico, El Salvador) # '' Ponthieva trilobata'' (L.O.Williams) L.O.Williams (1972) (Mexico, Guatemala) # '' Ponthieva tuerckheimii'' Schltr. (1906) (Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Panama) # '' Ponthieva tunguraguae'' Garay (1978) (Ecuador) # '' Ponthieva unguiculata'' Ames & C.Schweinf. (1925) (Bolivia) # '' Ponthieva vasquezii'' Dodson (1989) (Bolivia) # '' Ponthieva ventricosa'' (Griseb.) Fawc. & Rendle (1910) : Smooth Shadow Witch (Caribbean) # '' Ponthieva venusta'' Schltr. (1921) (Ecuador, Peru) # '' Ponthieva villosa'' Lindl. in G.Bentham (1845) (Ecuador, Peru) # '' Ponthieva viridilimbata'' Dressler (2005) (Ecuador) # '' Ponthieva weberbaueri'' Schltr. (1921) (Peru)

References

External links

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q137032 Cranichideae genera