REVELATORY NOTE ON BULBOPHYLLUM FIMBRIATUM – AN ENDEMIC ORCHID OF WESTERN GHATS, INDIA

Abstract

The genus Bulbophyllum Thouars is represented in India by 90 species and seven varieties of which 23 species are endemic; there are 11 species of the genus reported from Tamil Nadu (Singh et al., 2015). Heinrich Gustav Reichenbach (1861) was the first to reduce the genera Cirrhopetalum and Brachyantha as sections of Bulbophyllum, sensu lato. Based on it, Smith (1912) lumped all the species of Cirrhopetalum to Bulbophyllum. Those who are unconvinced (Hooker, 1888; Pfitzer, 1888–1889; Fischer, 1928; Banerji, 1978; Piers, 1984; Bose & Bhattacharjee, 1980; Bhattacharjee, 1980) of the sectional characters (the whorled inflorescence, short dorsal sepal, long lateral sepals, tumid lip, etc. – Reichenbach, 1861; Smith, 1912; Holttum, 1964; Vermeulen, 1987, Seidenfaden & Wood, 1992; Garay et al., 1994), treated Cirrhopetalum as a distinct genus from Bulbophyllum, s. str. Nevertheless, the recent a monograph of Genera Orchidacerum (Pridgeon et al., 2014) presented the sectional keys on the continental (geographical) aspects in Bulbophyllum. About 67 genera, including Cirrhopetalum, were merged with the Asian sections of Bulbophyllum, s.l. Now, Cirrhopetalum is a significant section in Bulbophyllum with its representative characters such as connate lateral sepal with a small split at base, besides the fringed petals which earned the name Cirrhopetalum