Benthamia mascula, Hervouet & Descourvières & Hermans & Longou, 2025

Hervouet, Jean-Michel, Descourvières, Pascal, Hermans, Johan & Longou, Ludivine, 2025, Revision of the genus Benthamia A. Rich. (Orchidaceae, Orchidioideae, Habenariinae), Adansonia (3) 47 (11), pp. 171-249 : 244

Benthamia macra Schltr.

Repertorium Specierum Novarum Regni Vegetabilis 33: 28 ( Schlechter 1924).

TYPE MATERIAL. — Madagascar • Haute Matsiatra, Massif d’Andringitra; 22°07’40”S, 46°51’48”E; alt. 2500 m; II.1922; H. Perrier 14577; holotype: P [ P00094532 ] !.

ETYMOLOGY. — From Latin “ macer ”, thin, meagre.

PHENOLOGY. — February.

DISTRIBUTION AND ECOLOGY. — Madagascar. Collected only once in the Andringitra massif, at the altitude of 2500 m.

CONSERVATION. — Data Deficient (DD).

NOTES

This species is known only from the type specimen, which is damaged. The leaves are reminiscent of Benthamia mascula sp. nov., but the spur, the bracts, and the size of the flower are different; the flowers are reminiscent of Benthamia melanopoda , and at least one specimen of Benthamia melanopoda (A. Seyrig 658, P[P00094533]!) was identified on the herbarium sheet as Benthamia macra by Perrier. However, there is no prominent callus on the lip and the side-lobes of the lip are not as long as the midlobe, which prevented us from putting this species in synonymy with Benthamia melanopoda . It also shares similarities with Benthamia perfecunda . It is surprising that this plant has not been found again on Andringitra since 1924, despite the fact that this area has been visited by many botanists. It could be a hybrid, with the most likely parents in Andringitra being Benthamia perfecunda , Benthamia bosseri or Benthamia flavida , the latter the only similar species mentioned by Schlechter.

A note by Jean Bosser attached to the typeP00094532 mentions a flower in alcohol, but it could not be located.

See also: Perrier (1939: 29), Cribb & Hermans (2009: 46). DESCRIPTION

Slender terrestrial herb, c. 45 cm high; stem terete, glabrous, enveloped at the base by a few sheaths, higher up with 3 distant leaves, upright, narrowly linear-acute, up to 13 cm × 8 mm. Rachis elongate, c. 12 cm, rather lax, bearing c. 20 flowers, secund. Floral bracts lanceolate-acuminate, as long as or a little longer than the ovary. Ovary fusiform cylindrical, glabrous, slightly twisted, 7 mm long. Flowers small, glabrous, greenish-brown; sepals dark, the rest greenish; sepals oblong, obtuse, 4 mm, the dorsal sepal 3-veined, the laterals 1-veined; petals 3-veined, oblong obtuse, thickened towards the tip, a little attenuate towards the base, as long as the sepals; lip oblong in contour, 4 × 2.25 mm, a little contracted in the middle, trilobed in the upper third; lateral lobes curved in a scythe-shape and obtusely-triangular, the middle one semi-oblong, very obtuse, almost twice as long as the laterals; spur very short, oblong and obtusely sac shaped. Anther subglobose and apiculate; auricles obtuse, short, hardly surpassing half the anther.