''Phalaenopsis violacea'' is a species of

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 ...

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

Andaman Islands The Andaman Islands () are an archipelago in the northeastern Indian Ocean about southwest off the coasts of Myanmar's Ayeyarwady Region. Together with the Nicobar Islands to their south, the Andamans serve as a maritime boundary between th ...

, the

Nicobar Islands The Nicobar Islands are an archipelagic island chain in the eastern Indian Ocean. They are located in Southeast Asia, northwest of Aceh on Sumatra, and separated from Thailand to the east by the Andaman Sea. Located southeast of the Indian s ...

and northwestern

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

Description

''Phalaenopsis violacea'' is a species of

belonging to the

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 ...

Phalaenopsis ''Phalaenopsis'' (), also known as moth orchids, is a genus of about seventy species of plants in the family Orchidaceae. Orchids in this genus are monopodial epiphytes or lithophytes with long, coarse roots, short, leafy stems and long-lasting ...

''.The plant has a compact habit, with medium size, wide green leaves. The individual flower of this plant is small (3.5 cm wide), fragrant and mostly violet. Some varieties of this plant have some green colour on the

tepal A tepal is one of the outer parts of a flower (collectively the perianth). The term is used when these parts cannot easily be classified as either sepals or petals. This may be because the parts of the perianth are undifferentiated (i.e. of very ...

edges. The plant was discovered in 1859 by

Johannes Teijsmann Johannes Elias Teijsmann (1 June 1808 – 22 June 1882) was a biologist, botanist and plant collector. He was born in Arnhem, The Netherlands. His surname is sometimes spelled ''Teysmann'', although he himself spelled it ''Teijsmann''. Teijsmann t ...

, who sent it to the botanic garden at

Leiden, Netherlands Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration with ...

Hortus Botanicus Leiden The Hortus botanicus of Leiden is the oldest botanical garden of the Netherlands, and one of the oldest in the world. It is located in the southwestern part of the historical centre of the city, between the Academy building and the old Leiden Obs ...

. It was then flowered by H. Witte. In that same year the banker Jan Abraham Willink W.Z.N. a dedicated amateur of orchids in Amsterdam,Doubtless it was the same "Mr. Willink" who imported from Java the variegated ''Coleus blumei'', (now known as ''

Plectranthus scutellarioides ''Coleus scutellarioides'', commonly known as coleus, is a species of flowering plant in the family Lamiaceae (the mint or deadnettle family), native to southeast Asia through to Australia. Typically growing to tall and wide, it is a bushy, woo ...

''), according to ''The Florist, Fruitist, and Garden Miscellany'' vol. 5 (1855), September, p 285; J. A. Willink died 31 May 1852, according to ''Proceedings at the Laying of the Corner-stone of the Ludlow and Willink Hall...'' 1866, p 29, but ''Annales d'horticulture et de botanique, ou Flore des jardins du Royaume des Pays-Bas'' vol 3, 1860 p. 86, reports a prize he had won and gives a report of the orchids currently under his care. also received some plants of the species and sent some of the flowering material to

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 ...

who described it in 1862 under the name '' Stauritis violacea''. In the same year Teijsmann and Binnedijk in

Bogor Bogor ( su, , nl, Buitenzorg) is a city in the West Java province, Indonesia. Located around south of the national capital of Jakarta, Bogor is the 6th largest city in the Jakarta metropolitan area and the 14th overall nationwide.Phalaenopsis ''Phalaenopsis'' (), also known as moth orchids, is a genus of about seventy species of plants in the family Orchidaceae. Orchids in this genus are monopodial epiphytes or lithophytes with long, coarse roots, short, leafy stems and long-lasting ...

'' hybrids in commerce.

Taxonomy

This species is closely related to ''

Phalaenopsis bellina ''Phalaenopsis bellina'' is an orchid endemic to Borneo. It is one of 75 species of Phalaenopsis and one of the most commonly cultivated species in the genus. Distribution ''Phalaenopsis bellina'' is found in parts of Borneo, growing in the can ...

'' and ''

Phalaenopsis mentawaiensis ''Phalaenopsis mentawaiensis'' is a species of orchid endemic to Sumatra, Indonesia. The specific epithet ''mentawaiensis'' refers to the Mentawai islands of West Sumatra. Description This species is a small-sized, hot-growing epiphyte with 15 ...

'', which were formerly included within ''Phalaenopsis violacea''

sensu lato ''Sensu'' is a Latin word meaning "in the sense of". It is used in a number of fields including biology, geology, linguistics, semiotics, and law. Commonly it refers to how strictly or loosely an expression is used in describing any particular co ...

. From the former broadly defined ''Phalaenopsis violacea'' the separation of ''Phalaenopsis bellina'' was published in 1995, followed by the more recent separation of ''Phalaenopsis mentawaiensis'' in 2014.

Natural hybrids

It is one of the parent species of the natural hybrid '' Phalaenopsis × gersenii''.

References

External links

* * violacea Plants described in 1861 {{Phalaenopsis-stub