CRYPTOSTYLIS | Herbarium Digital Library


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CRYPTOSTYLIS

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

APPROXIMATELY FIFTEEN SPECIES OF THE TERRESTRIAL genus Cryptostylis are reported from southeast Asia, including the Malay Peninsula and Ceylon, as well as Borneo, New Guinea, Australia, Samoa, and the Fiji Islands. One is indigenous to the Philippines and this species, C, arachnites, has a wide distribution throughout the entire area, being reported from Borneo, Java, Malay Peninsula, Ceylon and southern India, as well as Luzon, Negros, Leyte and Mindanao in the Philippines.

C.arachnites is a curious ground orchid with a fleshy root-stock. The ovate, pointed leaves are five to seven inches tall, a light green color and marked with a network of dark ,green lines and irregular blotches of dark green. The flower stem is longer than the leaf; from six to nine inches long and produces six to eight flowers at its terminal end. These are about an inch across with very narrow, similar petals and sepals. The most conspicuous part of the flower is the unusual labellum which does not exhibit the phenomenon of resupination as is common to most orchids. The labellum is orange colored with red-brown spots and hides the column, a peculiarity which gives the genus its name eryptos, "hidden," and stylis, "column." The specific name refers to the spiderlike appearance of the flower.

One of the most interesting problems encountered in the study of orchids is the fact that almost all of the orchid flowers undergo a twisting of 180° on their pedicel (flower stem) while forming; and as a result the flower is turned upside down. This arrangement allows the labellum to appear at the base of the flower. Naturalists and botanists offer many theories regarding this twisting which is referred to as resupination. However, no one knows what force is responsible for this turning of the flower. Cryptostylis arachnites is one of the few orchids in which the flower remains in its original position with the labellum at the top of the flower in the place usually occupied by the dorsal sepal.

C.arachnites has been collected by the authors from the mountains on the east coast of Luzon in the vicinity of Baler, Quezon Province. This species flowers during March.