e-Key <span id="jodit_selection_marker_1709297179682_13401276918030658" data-jodit_selection_marker="start" style="line-height: 0; display: none;"></span>v3 - Eul<span id="jodit_selection_marker_1709297179682_9514766165001987" data-jodit_selection_marker="end" style="line-height: 0; display: none;"></span>ophia
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Interactive keys to the identification of seed plants of southern Africa using keys based on plant morphology.

Orchidaceae - Epidendroideae - Cymbidieae - Eulophia R.Br. ex Lindl.

Description:

  • Terrestrial herbs, rarely lithophytic
  • Stems most commonly underground and cormous, sometimes thickened into aerial pseudobulbs, frequently corms chain-like and thus forming rhizomes
  • Leaves basal, distichous, usually plicate, soft or leathery, rarely succulent
  • Inflorescences lateral, usually racemose, rarely branched; flowers medium-sized to large, resupinate or rarely not, colour various
  • Sepals subequal, free, connivent, spreading or reflexed
  • Petals similar to sepals or broader, often differently coloured
  • Lip 3-lobed or subentire, base saccate or spurred, disc variously cristate, lamellate, or smooth
  • Gynostemium sometimes produced into column-foot at base; anther operculate, incumbent; pollinia 2, stipe solitary, oblong to triangular, viscidium 1, elliptic or lunate
  • Capsule oblong or somewhat linear, with prominent thickened angles
  • x = 27 (aneuploids, high polyploidy)

Nomenclature:

  • Eulophia R.Br. ex Lindl.
    • Lindley: t. 686 (1822) name conserved
    • Rolfe: 17 (1912)
    • Phillips: 242 (1951)
    • Hall: 1 (1965)
    • Schelpe: 28 (1966)
    • Stewart et al.: 229 (1982)
    • Linder & Kurzweil: 363 (1999)
  • Lissochilus R.Br. in Lindley
    • Lindley: t. 573 (1821)
    • Rolfe: 54 (1912)
    • Phillips: 242 (1951)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global: Species ± 250, pantropical
  • Southern Africa: Species 42, widespread

References:

  • HALL, A.V. 1965. Studies of the South African species of Eulophia. Journal of South African Botany, Supplement 5
  • LINDER, H.P. & KURZWEIL, H. 1999. Orchids of southern Africa. A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam
  • LINDLEY, J. 1821. Lissochilus speciosus. Botanical Register 7
  • LINDLEY, J. 1822. Eulophia guineensis. Botanical Register 8
  • PHILLIPS, E.P. 1951. The genera of South African flowering plants. Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa No. 25
  • ROLFE, R.A. 1912. Order CXXXI. Orchideae. Flora capensis 5,3
  • SCHELPE, E.A. 1966. An introduction to the South African Orchids. Purnell & Sons, Cape Town, Johannesburg
  • STEWART, J., LINDER, H.P., SCHELPE, E.A. & HALL, A.V. 1982. Wild orchids of southern Africa. Macmillan, Johannesburg

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