Species Information - Sarcanthopsis praealta

Sarcanthopsis praealta (Rchb.f.) Garay, Bot. Mus. Leafl. 23, 4 (1972) 199

Type: Beccari s.n. (holo FI)

Synonyms:

• Sarcanthus praealtus Rchb.f., Bot. Centralbl. 28 (1886) 344
  - Type: Beccari s.n. (holo FI)
• Vandopsis praealta (Rchb.f.) J.J.Sm., Natuurk. Tijdschr. Ned.-Indië 72 (1912) 78
• Vandopsis chalmersiana F.Muell. & Kraenzl., ñBot. Zeitschr. 44 (1894) 211
  - Type: Chalmers s.n. (1878)
• Sarcanthopsis chalmersiana (F.Muell. & Kraenzl.) Ormerod, Checkl. Papuas. Orchids (2017) 406
• Vandopsis curvata J.J.Sm., Bull. Jard. Bot. Buitenzorg, sér. 2, 13 (1914) 73
  - Type: Schmid cult. s.n. (New Guinea, locality not known) (iso L)
• Sarcanthopsis curvata (J.J.Sm.) Garay, Bot. Mus. Leafl. 23, 4 (1972) 199
• Vandopsis hansemannii (Kraenzl.) J.J.Sm., Natuurk. Tijdschr. Ned.-Indië 72 (1912) 78
• Sarcanthopsis hansemannii (Kraenzl.) J.J.Wood & Ormerod, Curtis's Bot. Mag. 20 (2003) 158
• Sarcanthopsis pantherina (J.J.Sm.) Garay, Bot. Mus. Leafl. 23, 4 (1972) 199
• Vandopsis pantherina J.J.Sm., Nova Guinea 14 (1929) 493, pl. 82, fig. 133
  - Type: Bogor cult. s.n. (New Guinea, locality not known)
• Stauropsis warocqueana Rolfe, Lindenia 7 (1891) 65, t. 319
  - Type: Warocqué s.n. (X-1890) (holo K)
• Vandopsis warocqueana (Rolfe) Schltr. in K.Schum. & Lauterb., Nachtr. Fl. Deutsch. Schutzgeb. Südsee (1905) 225
• Sarcanthopsis warocqueana (Rolfe) Garay, Bot. Mus. Leafl. Harvard Univ. 23, 4 (1972) 199

Stem stout, elongated, internodes c. 4.5 cm long, often with two roots per internode. Leaves to 26 by 5.75, horizontal, very fleshy, rigid, oblong-strap-shaped, apex rounded, slightly obliquely bilobulate, not mucronate, along the midrib grooved above, slightly prominent below, somewhat shiny; leaf sheaths as long as the internodes, 1.8 cm wide, tubular, in front rather deeply notched, in cross-section ovate. Inflorescences stout, erect, rigid, branching, densely many-flowered, with minute blackish brown scale-hairs, 24-32 cm long; peduncle in cross-section ovate, 6.5-7 cm long, 0.87 cm wide, with a few short, tubular peduncle-scales; branches c. 3, horizontal, to c. 10 cm long, c. 15-flowered, at the base covered with short and broad scales, rachis angular. Floral bracts somewhat recurved, rounded, at the base very broad, strongly saccate-concave, 0.75 by 0.65-0.8 cm. Pedicel 1.5-2 cm long. Flowers widely opening, fleshy, c. 2.7 cm diam. Sepals and petals obovate, obtuse, somewhat concave, outside convex, inside near the apex somewhat swollen. Sepals at the base broad, 1.25 by 0.9 cm. Lateral sepals oblique. Petals at the base rather narrow, cuneate-obovate, 1.25 by 1 cm. Lip at the base adnate to the column, very fleshy, 3-lobed, shortly saccate in the middle, in total 1.3 cm long; lateral lobes parallel, triangular, acute, at the base broad, lower margin curved, upper margin crenulate, inside near the apex with a small tooth; mid-lobe parallel with the column, porrect, 1 by 0.5 cm, its basal part oblong, with largely parallel margins, obtuse, inside in front with a large, very fleshy, triangular-conical callus, in the middle fleshy-keeled, above the base with an obtuse callus which is backwards produced into 3 distinct keels of which the lateral ones are decurrent on the margins of the mid-lobe; terminal lobule of the mid-lobe small, 0.2 by 0.28 cm, transversely elliptic, cushion-shaped, very fleshy, apex emarginate, inside with a longitudinal groove, margins irregularly crenulate, separated from the remainder of the mid-lobe by a deep transverse groove; sac pointing backwards, short, broad, with a deep longitudinal groove, apex 2-lobed, in lateral view obtusely conical, 0.3 cm long, 0.5 cm wide, inside divided into two pockets by the mid-rib. Column short, thick, at the base dilated, 0.5 cm long, stelidia short, acute, tooth-like. Anther convex, almost round. Pollinia 4, unequal, in 2 globose bodies; stipe linear, with inrolled margins; viscidium medium-sized. Rostellum short, 2-dentate. Stigma deeply hollow, quadrangular. Ovary trigonous, 6-grooved, with blackish brown scale-hairs, 1.2 cm long.
(After Smith, 1909)

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