Species of the Month – May 2015

Porpax Lindl. is a small Asiatic genus comprising of about 13 species distributed from India, Bhutan, Burma, China, Indochina, Thailand to Malaysia and Borneo. The genus is represented in India so far by 5 species of which 2 species viz. P. reticulata Lindl. and P. jerdoniana (Wt.) Rolfe are reported from Peninsular India and the remaining species are distributed in Sikkim and North-East Himalayas.

Porpax reticulata Lindl.

Porpax reticulata Lindl. Is a small sized epiphyte with disc shaped green colored pseudobulbs (20 mm in size) with a net like covering on the top. They are so tiny that they often go unnoticed growing on the tree trunks. Leaves are very small, oblong-elliptic of 5cm and appear after the flowering period.

Flowers are shaped like gramophone speakers and are deep reddish-brown in color, solitary from undeveloped pseudobulbs. Sepals are united to form a tube with a triangular mouth. Petals are small inside the tube with a 3-lobed papillose lip with a tongue like projection at the base. They flower in the months between April and August.

Distribution: Found in the hills of Southern India. They are also found on isolated trees near streams in evergreen to semi-evergreen forests in Western Ghats.

Destruction: All the recent developmental efforts in the Western Ghats region is directly effecting healthy orchid habitats. Be it road widening or telephone broadband installation or the electricity connectivity to all the villages, more trees are being felled. All those trees that are being felled are host trees for plenty of orchids. The tree in this picture had plenty of orchids with colonies of Flickingeria, Coelogyne Lindl. and Porpax reticulata Lindl. plants.

References:

1. Wild Orchids of Karnataka by T Anand Rao

2. Indian Orchids: Guide To Identification and Culture, Udai C. Pradhan

Article by: Srikanth Parthasarathy