COELOGYNE | Herbarium Digital Library


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COELOGYNE

Category: Plants and Orchids
Date Posted: 2006-10-13

THE GENUS COELOGYNE IS AN IMPORTANT GROUP OF approximately 150 species distributed throughout the southeast Asia area of Indo-Malaysia, China and the Philippines. It is a group which includes a number of horticultural species that have been in great demand for collections since their introduction during the last part of the past century, as well as a considerable number of botanical type plants seldom found in collections.

The genus is generally confined to the higher elevations, and many of the finer species are from the Himalayan Mountains of northern India, where they are collected at elevations from seven thousand to ten thousand feet. The genus was found by Dr. Lindley in 1825, with the well-known horticultural species C. cristata as the types. The generic name Coelogyne was suggested by the prominent depression in the stigma and is derived from the Greek kailos, "hollow," and gyne, "a female." Plants of this group are stemless, characterized by tufted, crowded pseudo-bulbs with two or three papery leaves. The flowers are in racemes, mostly pendent, medium-sized, usually of delicate white, yellowish, and greenish color, often suffused with brown. The lip is three-lobed with erect lateral lobes.

Most of the Philippine members of the genus, of which there are about twenty, are usually small flowered plants with greenish and yellowish flowers. There are two species, however, C. asperata and C. Merrillii which produce flowers of substantial size and prove of interest to some collectors. C. a.rperata is indigenous to the southern Philippine Islands of Samar, Mindanao and Negros, as well as the Islands of Borneo, Sumatra and New Guinea. This is a large plant that often grows three to four feet tall and has flowers 11/2 to two inches across. It is native to the hot, low coastal regions.

The other, C. Merrillii, is a mountain species and is found at an elevation of from two thousand to seven thousand feet. This plant has ovoid, smooth, slightly furrowed pseudo-bulbs about two to three inches long. The two terminal leaves are about six to ten inches long, lanceolate, on a short petiole or leaf stalk, and have five prominent veins. The three to six flowers develop terminally on a curved raceme which is produced from between the leaves of the immature pseudo-bulbs. The delicate slightly fragrant flowers are about three inches across, whitish yellow with a labellum that is brownish yellow near the base and has a whitish middle lobe. Sepals and petals are translucent, petals narrower than the sepals; dorsal sepal is curved inwards lying over the column; while the labellum is three-lobed; the middle lobe larger than the side lobes and recurved at the tip with three prominent hairy lines running down its length. This species is named in honor of Dr. Merrill, the distinguished botanist, who has contributed extensively to the study of the Philippine flora.

Coelogyne marmorata is representative of a number of similar native Coelogynes, all of which are indigenous to the mountains of northern Luzon and Benguet subprovince. Two other similar species, C. integerrima and C. chloroptera, also have shiny yellow green bulbs and sprays of from five to ten flowers. The pseudo-bulbs of C. marmorata are about 11/2 inches long, plump, somewhat curved, light green and ridged with five ribs. The leaves are about six inches long during the flowering season, but lengthen as the pseudo-bulb matures and some months later become twelve to fifteen inches long. The flower scapes carry about five to ten yellowish green flowers, about 11/2 inches across. Petals are narrower than the sepals and linear. The labellum is three-lobed with five wavy lines extending from the base of the labellum up to its midportion. The specific name marmorata refers to the marbled coloration which is characteristic of the' labellum.

C. marmorata and C. Merrillii are usually found growing on the moss-covered trees of the cool humid areas of the mountain regions and, therefore, cannot be grown successfully in the hot climate of Manila. C. M.errillii flowers during October and November while C. marmorata is in flower from June to July.

A common but rather insignificant species which is native to the eastern mountains of Luzon, as well as Mindanao, is C, candoonensis, a plant with small flowers. This species often appears in Philippine collections from material acquired in eastern Luzon. Mature pseudo-bulbs of this plant are four to five inches long, thick at the base, with two leaves which are thick, leathery and prominently veined. The raceme is terminal, erect, and longer than the leaves from which they develop, The stalk is flattened near the base. Only one flower opens at a time from the extending raceme of reddish brown bracts, which enclose the buds. The bracts are about one inch long and fall off as soon as the flower opens. Each flower is less than an inch in diameter and whitish with a three-lobed labellum and two calli near the base. The specific name is derived from the name of the mountain, Mount Candoon, near Bukidnon, Mindanao, where the plant was first collected. This species was first described by Professor Ames in 1923.