Orchids of New Guinea

Species

Next Genus: Genus Glomera section Glomera

Genus Glomera

Glomera Blume, Bijdr. (1825) 372

Synonyms:

Genus Giulianettia Rolfe, Hooker's Icon. Pl. (1899) t. 2616
Genus Glossorhyncha Ridl., J. Linn. Soc.
Genus Ischnocentrum Schltr., Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 1 (1912) 318
Genus Sepalosiphon Schltr., Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 1 (1912) 317
Genus Thylacoglossum (Schltr.) Brieger in Schltr., Orchideen

Sympodial epiphytic or terrestrial plants. Stem elongated, often branching. Leaves many, sheathing at the base, sheath hairy or not, often more or less warty, margins often fimbriate-laciniate, blade glabrous, dorso-ventrally flattened, sometimes almost terete, articulate, duplicate, stiffly thin-textured to carnose. Inflorescence terminal, a raceme or carrying a single flower, subtended by one or more membranous sheaths (spathes). Flowers small to rather large, resupinate or not, variously coloured but predominantly white, the lip often with a conspicuous blackish, red, green or yellow spot near the apex. Lateral sepals, and sometimes also the dorsal sepal connate at the base. Petals free, often fairly similar to the dorsal sepal, but sometimes distinctly broader, rarely narrower. Lip adnate to the column, spurred, not mobile. Column relatively short and thick, with deeply concave clinandrium and cup-like stigma; column-foot present or absent. Pollinia 4, solid-waxy, caudicles present, stipe absent, viscidium present or absent.

Distribution:

Thailand, Java, Sulawesi, Moluccas, New Guinea, Solomon Islands, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji, east to Samoa. About 100 species; in New Guinea c. 90 species.

Habitat:

Epiphytes in lowland and montane forest, at higher altitudes also terrestrial. Most abundant above 2000 m.

Classification:

Subfamily Epidendroideae
Tribe Arethuseae
Subtribe Coelogyninae
Genus Glomera

Notes:

In terms of biomass Glomera is one of the predominant orchid genera in the montane forests of New Guinea. When not in flower most species resemble a small ericaceous shrub rather than an orchid. The inflorescences are always terminal, often at the apex of short lateral branches. Branches of different age and length often flower simultaneously. The inflorescences are either one-flowered or consist of two to many flowers seemingly arranged in a head. This head-like inflorescence is in fact a strongly abbreviated raceme; it is not, like in the superficially similar genus Agrostophyllum, a fascicle of several short inforescences, although it has often been wrongly interpreted as such. Glomera is not at all closely related to Agrostophyllum. Surprisingly, recent DNA studies by Cameron, Gravendeel and others, place Glomera quite close to Coelogyne, with which there are few morphological similarities. At species level Glomera is taxonomically among the most difficult genera in New Guinea. Like in some other genera in this region (e.g. Epiblastus, Mediocalcar, Phreatia and Ceratostylis) species with totally different habit may have almost identical flowers. Species of Glomera are rarely cultivated, even though some are very pretty. Experience in the Hortus Botanicus in Leiden has shown that plants imported from the wild are hard to establish, but once established they are not too difficult, provided they are not allowed to dry out much at any time.

Two sections can conveniently be distinguished: sect. Uniflorae with 1-flowered inflorescences, and sect. Glomera with 2- or more-flowered inflorescences. It seems doubtful whether this corresponds with the main branches in the phylogeny of the genus. The former genera Glossorhyncha, Giulianettia, Ischnocentrum and Sepalosiphon all belong to sect. Uniflorae, which is the most diverse of the two sections.

In New Guinea the following species of the genus Glomera occur:

Glomera acicularis
Glomera acuminata
Glomera acutiflora
Glomera adenocarpa
Glomera affinis
Glomera albiviridis
Glomera amboinensis
Glomera angiensis
Glomera asperata
Glomera aurea
Glomera bambusiformis
Glomera bismarckiensis
Glomera brachychaete
Glomera brevipetala
Glomera calocephala
Glomera carnea
Glomera compressa
Glomera confusa
Glomera conglutinata
Glomera cyatheicola
Glomera dekockii
Glomera dentifera
Glomera dependens
Glomera diosmoides
Glomera dischorensis
Glomera distichifolia
Glomera dubia
Glomera elegantula
Glomera ericifolia
Glomera flaccida
Glomera flammula
Glomera fransseniana
Glomera fruticula
Glomera fruticulosa
Glomera fusca
Glomera gamosepalata
Glomera geelvinkensis
Glomera gibbsiae
Glomera glomeroides
Glomera goliathensis
Glomera graminifolia
Glomera grandiflora
Glomera hamadryas
Glomera hubrechtiana
Glomera hunsteiniana
Glomera imitans
Glomera inconspicua
Glomera inflata
Glomera jabiensis
Glomera kaniensis
Glomera kanke
Glomera keytsiana
Glomera latilinguis
Glomera latipetala
Glomera ledermannii
Glomera leucomela
Glomera longa
Glomera longicaulis
Glomera macrantha
Glomera macrophylla
Glomera manicata
Glomera mayuensis
Glomera melanocaulon
Glomera microphylla
Glomera minutigibba
Glomera montana
Glomera myrtillus
Glomera nana
Glomera neohibernica
Glomera nigrilimbata
Glomera obovata
Glomera obtusa
Glomera oligantha
Glomera palustris
Glomera palustris var. subintegra
Glomera papuana
Glomera parviflora
Glomera patens
Glomera pensilis
Glomera pilifera
Glomera platypetala
Glomera pleiotricha
Glomera polychaete
Glomera pteropetala
Glomera pullei
Glomera pungens
Glomera retusa
Glomera retusimentum
Glomera rhombea
Glomera rigidula
Glomera rubroviridis
Glomera saccharipanis
Glomera saccosepala
Glomera salicornioides
Glomera salmonea
Glomera sandaveri
Glomera scandens
Glomera schlechteriana
Glomera schultzei
Glomera sepalosiphon
Glomera similis
Glomera squamulosa
Glomera stoloniferum
Glomera sublaevis
Glomera subpetiolata
Glomera subracemosa
Glomera subulata
Glomera subuliformis
Glomera tamiana
Glomera tenuis
Glomera terrestris
Glomera torricellensis
Glomera triangularis
Glomera uniflora
Glomera verrucifera
Glomera verrucosissima
Glomera verruculosa
Glomera versteegii
Glomera viridis
Glossorhyncha altigena
Glossorhyncha altomontana
Glossorhyncha ambuensis
Glossorhyncha antaresensis
Glossorhyncha caespitosa
Glossorhyncha chlorantha
Glossorhyncha crispa
Glossorhyncha cristata
Glossorhyncha diffusa
Glossorhyncha fluviatilis
Glossorhyncha grandilabella
Glossorhyncha kerewensis
Glossorhyncha keysseri
Glossorhyncha minjensis
Glossorhyncha monticuprina
Glossorhyncha muscicola
Glossorhyncha nigricans
Glossorhyncha nigrimarginata
Glossorhyncha noroma
Glossorhyncha pendulata
Glossorhyncha pinifolia
Glossorhyncha scopulata
Glossorhyncha stenophylla
Glossorhyncha subalpina
Glossorhyncha tortuosa
Glossorhyncha tubisepala
Glossorhyncha umbrosa