Oberonia nayarii Ansari & N.P.Balakr.

Geiger, D. L., 2019, Studies on Oberonia 5 (Orchidaceae: Malaxideae). Twenty-four new synonyms, and a corrected spelling, Blumea 64 (2), pp. 123-139 : 132-133

Oberonia nayarii Ansari & N.P.Balakr. — Fig. 10

Oberonia nayarii Ansari & N.P.Balakr. (1990) 17, f. 11. — Type: C.A. Barber 2687 (holo MH), India, Tamil Nadu, Nilgiris, Pykara. R. S. Raghavan 85373 (para BSI), India, Karnataka, Chikmangalur. B.D. Naithani 23237 (para MH), India, Karnataka, Mysore. A. V.N. Rao 18205 (para MH), India, Karnataka, Mysore. M. Mohanan 52522 & 66057 (para MH), India, Kerala,Trivandrum [= Thiruvananthapuram]. A.N. Henry 52425 (para MH), India, Tamil Nadu, Kanniyakumari .

? Oberonia balakrishnanii Ansari (in Ansari & Balakrishnan (1990)) 16, f. 10. — Type: Brown 1837 (holo MH), India, Tamil Nadu, Puleneys, Church Cliff .

Notes — Oberonia nayarii and O. balakrishnanii pose some intriguing problems with respect to the illustrations in the protologue. It seems that the drawing of the entire flower and the drawings of the floral parts were derived from two different plants.

Oberonia nayarii has the following inconsistencies: auricles of labellum distinct in flower, absent in part; median sepal acuminate acute in flower, ovate obtuse in part, petals wider in flower than in part.

Oberonia balakrishnanii has the following inconsistencies: labellum about 30 % larger in part compared to flower; lateral lobes of labellum missing apical incision in flower; labellum of part with smaller and well-separated lobules of the epichile.

The floral parts of the two names are identical to one another, and seem to have been drawn from a third species, possibly O. brunoniana . The apparent differences in size could be a further error with the scale bars (see O. mucronata discussion above). Another possibility is that some of the floral parts in the whole flower are reflexed, while they are spread out flat in the illustrations of the parts. These names need to be investigated by a researcher with access to Indian herbaria.

Figures

Fig. 10 Illustrations from the protologue of O. nayarii (a) and O. balakrishnanii (b), showing multiple inconsistencies between entire flower and floral parts.