Dear Mike, Icones (is that your real name?) and Jim. Mike, the situation you describe just underscores the state of confusion that predominates in the Maxillaria cucullata complex. Simply put, there is no taxonomic revision for this group yet. The major problem with this is that when you make a herbarium specimen out of these plants, the flowers generally turn uniformly black and it is difficult to distinguish the different species, even when in life they might be distinctive. This is a major problem because the species names are attached to the type herbarium specimens. It will be done eventually, but it will take some time. Judging from the type specimens and living plants I have seen, I think that at least M. cucullata, M. meleagris, M. obscura, M. lexarzana (=M. atrata), M. praestans, M. mombachoensis, and maybe M. punctostriata are "good" species. I understand your desire to just come to a consensus and assign names, but we cannot just ignore the rules of botanical nomenclature.
Maxillaria meleagris is a species with much narrower leaves and overall smaller plants and flowers. Mark Whitten prepared nice comparative photos of M. meleagris and M. cucullata, available here: ftp://flmnh.ufl.edu/public/ODG/Camaridium%20meleagris%20cucullatum%20comparison.pdf You will notice that they are labelled as species of Camaridium, according to our new classification system. Now, for the photos in IOPSE: the one labelled M. cucullata is what we call M. punctostriata. The "yellow variety" is what we call M. cucullata (this one does not occur in southern Central America). The "red variety" is probably one of the intermediate specimens from northern Central America. And the one labelled "Questionable species" is a member of the Maxillaria madida alliance from Brazil, NOT closely related to M. cucullata. The information in IOPSE says that M. cucullata is found from Mexico to Ecuador, but in reality the entire species complex is almost completely restricted to Mexico and Central America (one species potentially makes it into Colombia). Icones points to the VERY useful Flora Costaricensis 40 (published by Atwood and Mora in 1999), which includes line drawings for most species of Costa Rican maxillarias. Although most of the information there remains up to date, Atwood later synonymized M. punctostriata with M. cucullata in the Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica, vol. 3 (published in 2003). The situation remains far from being settled, though. Jim, I can help you ID your maxillarias if you send me the photos (I am from Costa Rica :-) ). You can see photos of several species of Maxillaria from Costa Rica (and elsewhere) here: http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/herbarium/cat/imagesearch.asp - Mario A. Blanco Herbarium FLAS Florida Museum of Natural History University of Florida 385 Dickinson Hall P.O. Box. 117800 Gainesville, FL 32611-7800 U.S.A. Michael O'Connor wrote: > Mario wrote : > >> The photo labeled as Maxillaria meleagris in IOPSE is truly M. >> punctostriata (sorry Jay, it seems I overlooked this correction; you >> already have another photo of M. punctostriata). Now, M. punctostriata >> has recently been put in the synonymy of M. cucullata, which is a >> variable species, and sometimes has almost pure purple flowers. I >> prefer to use the name M. punctostriata for Costa Rican-Panamanian >> populations, but apparently northern populations become progressively >> more similar to M. cucullata from Mexico (notice that Jay's photo of M. >> cucullata is very similar to the other two mentioned above). The M. >> cucullata species complex is quite complicated and needs to be sorted >> out taxonomically. >> > > Mario sorry to hound you but if you do not ask questions you do not learn. > I am now more confused than ever as I read up on what you say above (not > doubting you). > In "Flora of Panama" Allen gives as synonyms for Maxillaria cucullata the > following Maxillarias : M. Meleagris Lindl, M. Lendeniana Rich & Gal., M. > obscura Linden & Rchb., and M. punctostriata Rchb.f.. > In "Flora of Guatemala" Ames and Correll give as synonyms for Maxillaria > cucullata the following Maxillarias : > M. rhombea Lindl., M. atrata Reichb.f., M. obscura Lindl. and M. praestans > Reich.f. > and as synonyms for Maxillaria meleagris they give the following > Maxillarias : > M. lindeniana A. Rich & Gal., and M. punctostriataReichb.f. > Botanica's "Pocket Orchids" they seem to follow Ames and Correll in that > they give Maxillaria punctostriata as a synonym for Maxillaria meleagris. > Now my question. When I look at Jay's photos of Maxillaria cucullata and his > Maxillaria meleagris, taking a good look at the smooth looking front of the > callus/fleshy ridge on the lip, they are both "smooth" and when I look at > the photo of the "red" form of the flower of Maxillaria meleagris the callus > looks decidedly ridged. My question to you is simply this : > Are the two photos of the yellow flowers (Maxillaria cucullata and > Maxillaria meleagris) the same species and probably both Maxillaria > cucullata and the photo of the pink flower a true Maxillaria meleagris? The > only diference that I see in the two yellow flowers is that one is a bit > under exposed and dark. Shouldn;t we just go with Allen and call them all > Maxillaria cucullata? :-) > Keep well and kind regards > Mike > South Africa > > > _______________________________________________ > the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) > [email protected] > http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com > > > - _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) [email protected] http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
