Dracula colombiana Baquero, Est.Domínguez & E.Parra, 2025

Baquero, Luis E., Vargas, Esteban Dominguez, Mesa, Santiago & Parra-Sanchez, Edicson, 2025, Dracula colombiana (Pleurothallidinae: Orchidaceae), a new orchid species with a history of misidentification in trade and collections, Phytotaxa 706 (1), pp. 81-90 : 83-88

publication ID	https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.706.1.6
DOI	https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16911517
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/72710839-FFFB-FFBF-FF22-FF7B1D09FEFA
treatment provided by	Felipe
scientific name	Dracula colombiana Baquero, Est.Domínguez & E.Parra
status	sp. nov.

Treatment

Dracula colombiana Baquero, Est.Domínguez & E.Parra View in CoL , sp. nov.

( Figures 1–4 View FIGURE 1 View FIGURE 2 View FIGURE 3 View FIGURE 4 ).

Type: — COLOMBIA. Antioquia: Urrao, Vereda Pringamosal , Sector La Cañada. Low mountain forest, secondary, heavily affected by agricultural and periurban frontiers, next to a creek, 2000 m, 17 September 2021, E. Domínguez, E. Durango & A. Jaramillo-Urán EDV- 2635 (holotype: HUA!).

Dracula colombiana is most similar to D. benedictii from which it differs in the solid pink lip with ovate, glabrous epichile with straight margins with the apex sometimes saccate, longer than the hypochile (vs. the white or slightly pink suborbicular, lightly verrucose, epichile with lightly involute margins, shorter than the hypochile); also, the adaxial surface of the sepals in D. colombiana is covered by brown-red papillae and shortly pubescent towards the apex (vs. the purple-black, verrucose adaxial surface of the sepals with no pubescence).

Description: — Plant medium in size, epiphytic, caespitose. Roots slender, 0.6 mm in diameter. Ramicauls erect, slender, 2.0–3.0 cm long, enclosed by 2–3, loose, tubular sheets. Leaf erect, thinly coriaceous, carinate, narrowly obovate, acute, 10–30 cm long including an indistinct petiole Inflorescence a congested, successively few-flowered raceme, born by a sparsely bracted, horizontal to decending penduncle, 4.0–8.0 cm long, close to the base of the ramicaul, floral bract, tubular, 8 mm long; pedicel 15 mm long; ovary blood-red, 6 mm long, glabrous, round to slightly ribbed in cross-section; Sepals cream colored, densely covered by brown-red warts and papillae internally, shortly pubescent towardsthe apex and with brown-red carinae externally; dorsal sepal, transversally obovate, concave, 0.8 × 1.2 cm, connate to the lateral sepals for 6 mm to form a deeply cupped flower, the obtuse apex contracted into a slender, erect, brown-red tail 2.5–3.0 cm long, the lateral sepals broadly ovate, oblique, concave, 11.0 × 9.0 mm, connate 8.0 mm to form a broad mentum, the transverse apices contracted into tails similar to the dorsal sepal. Petals translucent white marked with brown, cartilaginous, oblong, 6.0 × 3.0 mm, the apex obtuse, bivalvate, brown-red, papillose between the laminae, the lamina slightly denticulate adaxially, the lamina recurved abaxially. Lip rose, spathulate, 6.2 × 3.8 mm, the epichile subacute at the apex, ovate, 4.2 × 3.8 mm, concave with a central sinuous carina flanked on either side by 2 sinuous raised veins similar in shape and size, the hipochile transversally quadrate, 2.0 × 2.5 mm, with erect, rounded, marginal angles, cleft centrally, the concave base hinged to the column-foot. Column yellow and white with a 1mm long, burgundy column foot, stout, semiterete, 3.5 mm long with four denticles at the apex, two shorter towards the center and two longer toward the margins. Anther cap white Pollinia 2, yellow. Fruits and seeds not observed.

Distribution and ecology:— We found 33 records of Dracula benedictii on GBIF. Of these, 67% (22 records) were from living plants cultivated in private collections, while the remaining 33% (11 records) corresponded to herbarium specimens. Historical records of the new species date back to 1883 (Lehman s. n., K) with a locality near Rio Risaralda (a potential synonym to a river near the Risaralda capital between 2000—2300 m in elevation). Collections in 1970 report sites in “Quebrada La Congoja” (JAUM 33232) and “Cerro Lucero” (JAUM 33231). Later, in 1988, Luer reported another record from the same municipality (Luer 13178) of Pueblo Rico, department of Risaralda, Colombia ( Figure 5 View FIGURE 5 ). The expedition conducted by one of the authors of this article led to the discovery of a wild population and collection of a specimen of D. colombiana in the field, confirming that the species is native to the Western Colombian Andes, as suggested by herbaria records ( Figure 5 View FIGURE 5 ).

Dracula colombiana thrives as an epiphyte in the low montane or cloud forests of the western Andes of Colombia, at elevations ranging between 1700 and 2300 meters. These forests, known for their high orchid diversity, are increasingly threatened by the expansion of agricultural and urban development, as they overlap with areas of high human population density.

Etymology:— Named after Colombia, the richest country in Dracula species, and the one where this species was discovered and still found in the Western Andes forests.

Additional specimens examined (paratypes):— COLOMBIA. Antioquia: Municipio de Carmen del Viboral, 2300 m, W. Teague and N. Lopez, flowered in culture 13 November 1987, R. Escobar 3969 ( JAUM!) ; locality not registered, flowered in cultivation, 1975, O. J. Arango T. 48, as D. benedictii (Reichenbach f.) Luer ( JAUM!) ; Quindio: Armenia , flowered in cultivation, Diciembre 1975, Ortiz 808 ( HPUJ!). Risaralda: Cordillera Occidental , Pueblo Rico, Cerro Lucero, 2000–2200 m, R. Escobar 428 ( JAUM!) ; margins of Río Risaralda , 2000–2300 m, 20 October, 1883 Lehmann F.C. 3217 ( BR!) ; Pueblo Rico , 1700 m, 12 April 1978, collected by J. Serna, Luer 13178 ( JAUM!) ; Quebrada la Congoja , Municipio de Pueblo Rico, 1900 m, November 1973, R. Escobar 969 ( JAUM!) ; Tolima, 2100 m, 10 January 1883, Lehmann s.n. ( K!) .

Conservation status:— The new species has an extent of occurrence (EOO) of 8,058 km 2 and an area of occupation (AOO) of 16 km 2, with only four known locations at present.All records occur in disturbed zones, near inhabited areas, which may indicate a diminished quality of habitat. Furthermore, the new species has been traded for a long time under the name D. benedictii , even across Ecuadorian nurseries, far from its native range. This indicates that illegal collection from the wild and orchid smuggling (even out of Colombia) is a real threat to the species. It seems clear that is not an exception but rather a fairly common practice, for new species of orchids to be smuggled and sold in the orchid trade, even outside of their native range, before deeper scientific studies reveal that long known species in cultivation are undescribed species ( Parra-Sanchez et al. 2024, Parra-Sanchez & Baquero 2023, Yeager et al. 2022, Baquero & Mogrovejo 2021, Yeager et al. 2020,, Baquero 2019). Thus, the new species should be classified as “Endangered” (EN) category based on sub-criteria B2a (Figure 6, IUCN 2020), due to its restricted known distribution, long history in trade, and occurrence outside any protected area.

Taxonomic discussion:—Several plants of this species have been observed in cultivation in private collections over the years, surpassing the number of exsiccate stored in herbaria collected from wild populations. For instance, a plant acquired by the Quito Botanical Garden from the nursery Mundiflora from Ecuador ( Figure 4B View FIGURE 4 ) was allegedly collected near to Pueblo Rico, Risaralda in the Western Andes of Colombia (Ivan Ácaro, pers. communication). Plants in cultivation of Dracula colombiana seen in different private collections show slight variations in flower morphology, including size and pigmentation (some individuals have a larger, clear zone at the lower, adaxial surface of the sepals; Figure 4 View FIGURE 4 ). However, all observed individuals fall under the morphological delimitation of D. colombiana , consistent across plants observed in cultivation, in the wild, and in herbaria ( Figures 1 View FIGURE 1 –6).

Dracula colombiana is most similar to D. benedictii due to its dark, small, and connate flowers. However, the shallower flowers of D. colombiana differs from the consistently deeper and round flower-cups of D. benedictii ( Figures 3–5 View FIGURE 3 View FIGURE 4 View FIGURE 5 ). Also, the pubescent sepals of D. colombiana , specially towards the margins, is a distinctive characteristic that separate it from D. benedictii , which has sepals with verrucose integument. Furthermore, the ovary is glabrous in D. colombiana but slightly verrucose in D. benedictii .

Furthermore, the lip structure of both species differs significantly: in D. colombiana , the epichile is longer than the hypochile, whereas in D. benedictii , the hypochile is longer than the epichile. Additionally, the shape of the nerves and number of lamellae in the epichile is notoriously different in both species: D. colombiana , has a central carina flanked by two sinuous lateral nerves and several broken llamellae, whilst D. benedictii shows a straight carina and two lateral straight nerves with scarce or absent lamellae. D. colombiana has a rose lip, glabrous with straight margins in the epichile, in contrast to the verrucose (in the external surface and in the central carinae), white lip suffused with rose, and involute margins of D. benedictii . Also, the angle of the epichile in D. benedictii is strongly bent backwards, while in D. colombiana it is only lightly curved.

Finally, two distinct blotches behind the petals, a “trademark” of Dracula benedictii , are not seen in any of the other dark, cupped-flowered species of Dracula such as D. pholeodytes Luer & R. Escobar (1982: 68) , D. vinacea Luer & R. Escobar (1978: 39) or D. colombiana .

Considering that several species of Dracula have been described from single plants later proven to be morphological variations of known species, spontaneous hybrids produced by pollination between species grown in private collections, or even natural spontaneous hybrids which do not seem to constitute lineages but rather isolated events (Parra & Baquero 2023, Luer 1993, Luer 1989) the new species proposed here follows the General Species Concept (perhaps the only ontological species concept proposed in the last decades; De Queiroz 2007).According to this conceptual framework, a species is considered as a lineage of living organisms within a metapopulation (all the populations related, undergoing gene-flow) diverging from its closest lineage and with its own evolutionary trajectory. The evidence presented here, combining herbaria curation and fieldwork, supports the hypothesis that Dracula colombiana is a valid and distinct new taxon.