Bletia Ruiz & Pav.
Contenido
Descripción
Erect terrestrial herbs; pseudobulbs subglobose, epigeous, or hypogeous, occasionally tuberlike; leaves few (or none at flowering time), plicate, petiolate. articulate; inflorescence racemose, the scapes lateral on the pseudobulbs, leafless; sepals subequal, free or the lateral ones somewhat connate and gibbous at base; petals similar to the dorsal sepal; lip free, erect, entire or 3-lobed, the base usually contracted, sometimes a little gibbous; lateral lobes usually broad, parallel or their tips spreading; midlobe erect or recurved, often retuse or bilobed: disk often lamellate: column elongate, subterete, winged, often with 2 auricles at base, footless or with a short foot; anther operculate, incumbent; pollinia 8, waxy.
Perhaps 50 species in the tropics and subtropics of the New World. About five species not treated below occur in eastern Mexico. Lectotype species B. catenulate Ruiz & Pav.A
Perhaps 50 species in the tropics and subtropics of the New World. About five species not treated below occur in eastern Mexico. Lectotype species B. catenulate Ruiz & Pav.A
Discusión taxonómica
According to Dressler (Taxon 13: 248. 1964) the genus Crybe Lindl., with a single species, C. rosea Lindl., is not distinct from Bletia. Dressler says, in effect, that Crybe has long been maintained as distinct on the basis of its soft, mealy pollinia. It is usually self-pollinated, and the flowers rarely open. If one prevents self-pollination, the pollinia remain as hard as in any Bletia. Crybe (Bletia) rosea has an unusually large lip, but is otherwise not out of place in Bletia. See also Magdalena Peña de Sousa, "Nuevo estatus de Crybe en el género Bletia" (Orquideología 6, no. 1 [5 pp. | 1971). Not all students agree with Dressler and Peña that Crybe and Bletia are synonymous. The one species of Crybe is so markedly different from all our other species of Bletia, both in appearance and in floral morphology, that in comparison with other genera of orchids it is rather distinctive.
In the descriptions of species of this genus, many data have been taken from the photographs and specimens of Dr. Rosillo. Most of the species in our flora are readily recognized from living flowering specimens, but pressed specimens, especially of the large-flowered species, are often difficult to identify because the characteristic form and color of the flowers have been lost or grossly distorted Neither the size of the flowers, nor the size and form of the lobes of the lip, both of which have been used widely in keys to the species of Bletia, seems to provide an easy and consistent means of identification.
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In the descriptions of species of this genus, many data have been taken from the photographs and specimens of Dr. Rosillo. Most of the species in our flora are readily recognized from living flowering specimens, but pressed specimens, especially of the large-flowered species, are often difficult to identify because the characteristic form and color of the flowers have been lost or grossly distorted Neither the size of the flowers, nor the size and form of the lobes of the lip, both of which have been used widely in keys to the species of Bletia, seems to provide an easy and consistent means of identification.
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