Corybas (plant)

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Helmet orchids
Corybas pictus (15936198372).jpg
Corybas pictus - a South-East Asian species
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Order: Asparagales
Family: Orchidaceae
Subfamily: Orchidoideae
Tribe: Diurideae
Subtribe: Acianthinae
Genus: Corybas
Salisb. [1]
Corybas distribution map.png
Corybas range map
Synonyms [1]
  • CorysanthesR.Br.
  • CalceariaBlume
  • NematocerasHook.f.
  • AnzybasD.L.Jones & M.A.Clem.
  • Gastrosiphon(Schltr.) M.A.Clem. & D.L.Jones
  • MolloybasD.L.Jones & M.A.Clem.
  • SingularybasMolloy, D.L.Jones & M.A.Clem.

Corybas, commonly known as helmet orchids, is a genus of about 120 species of plants in the orchid family, Orchidaceae. Helmet orchids are small, perennial, deciduous herbs and are nearly always terrestrial. They have a single leaf at their base and a single flower on a short stalk, the flower dominated by its large dorsal sepal and labellum. Species of Corybas are found in Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, Southeast Asia, the Himalayas, southern China, many Pacific islands and a few sub-Antarctic islands. [1]

Contents

Description

Orchids in the genus Corybas are perennial, deciduous, sympodial, usually terrestrial herbs, lacking roots. (A few sometimes grow as epiphytes on the fibrous bark of tree ferns or on the mossy branches of trees.) They have an underground tuber which is more or less spherical and fleshy. New tubers form at the end of root-like stolons. There is a single, heart-shaped, kidney-shaped or almost round leaf, usually at ground level and a short erect stem with a single flower at the top. [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]

The flower has a short stalk with a small, leaf-like bract at its base. The flower is resupinate, dull-coloured and resembles the fruiting body of a fungus. The dorsal sepal is much larger than the lateral sepals and petals and curves forward, often forming a hood over the column. The lateral sepals and petals are small, linear to almost thread-like. As is usual in orchids, one petal is highly modified as the central labellum and in this genus is often the most obvious part of the flower. The labellum is large, deeply concave or tube-shaped with its base attached to the base of the column and sometimes completely surrounding the column. Sometimes there is a pair of small, ear-like appendages on either side, near the base. The column is small, enclosed by the base of the labellum and has small wings. In temperate regions, flowering occurs between autumn and spring and in tropical regions in most months. The fruit that follows flowering is a non-fleshy, dehiscent capsule containing up to 500 seeds. As the fruit matures, the flower withers and the flower stem elongates to a length of up to 30 cm (12 in), aiding in seed dispersal. [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]

Labelled image (Corybas pictus) Corybas pictus (labelled).001.jpg
Labelled image ( Corybas pictus )

Taxonomy and naming

Corybas aconitiflorus was first formally described by Richard Salisbury, allegedly from a colour plate prepared by Ferdinand Bauer [2] and thus became the type species for the genus. The description was published in The Paradisus Londinensis . [8] [9] Salisbury stated that the name of the genus was derived from similarity of the flowers to the covered head of the Greek Κορύβας (Korybas), [10] a male dancer, shown in illustrations wearing a crested helmet, who worshipped the goddess Cybele. Korybas was a priest of Cybele, "whose religious rites were accompanied by frenzied music and dancing". [11] A 2002 revision of Corybas split it into numerous genera, [12] but this is not widely accepted. [13] [14]

Ecology

Pollination appears to be achieved by small insects, possibly mistaking the unusual flowers for fungi. [2] [15] Helmet orchids have not often been studied, partly because of their short-lived, inconspicuous flowers but also because the flowers are difficult to preserve as herbarium specimens. Many form clonal colonies but it is not known whether this is a characteristic of all species. [3]

Distribution and habitat

Helmet orchids grow in India, South China, Taiwan, the Malay Peninsula, Borneo, the Philippines, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Ponape, Indonesia, New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Australia (including Macquarie Island), New Zealand (including Chatham, Stewart, Auckland and Campbell Islands), Tahiti, Samoa and the Society Islands. Australian species usually grow in moist, shady places, often with dense moss or on rotting logs, sometimes with orchids from other genera.

Species

As of July 2020, the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families accepts the following species and natural hybrids: [16]

Related Research Articles

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Spathoglottis, commonly known as purple orchids or 苞舌兰属 is a genus of about fifty species of orchids in the family Orchidaceae. They are evergreen terrestrial herbs with crowded pseudobulbs, a small number of leaves and medium-sized resupinate flowers on an upright flowering stem. The sepals and petals are all similar to each other and are white, yellow, pink or purple. Species of Spathoglottis are found from eastern and south-eastern Asia to Australia and some Pacific Islands.

<i>Calanthe</i> Genus of orchids

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<i>Phaius</i> Genus of orchids

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<i>Zeuxine</i> Genus of orchids

Zeuxine, commonly known as verdant jewel orchids, is a genus of about eighty species of orchids in the tribe Cranichideae. They are native to parts of tropical Africa, Asia, Southeast Asia, New Guinea, Australia and some Pacific Islands. They have relatively narrow, dark green leaves and small, dull-coloured resupinate flowers with the dorsal sepal and petals overlapping to form a hood over the column. The labellum has a pouched base and its tip has two lobes.

<i>Anoectochilus</i> Genus of flowering plants

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<i>Gastrodia</i> Genus of orchids

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<i>Aphyllorchis</i> Genus of flowering plants

Aphyllorchis, commonly known as pauper orchids or as 無葉蘭屬/无叶兰属 , is a genus of about twenty species of terrestrial leafless orchids in the family Orchidaceae. Orchids in this genus have fleshy, upright stems and small to medium-sized resupinate flowers with narrow sepals and petals. They are native to a region extending from India east to China and Japan, south to Indonesia, New Guinea and Queensland.

<i>Pinalia</i> Genus of orchids

Pinalia, commonly known as gremlin orchids, is a genus of flowering plants in the family Orchidaceae. Orchids in this genus are large epiphytic or lithophytic plants with prominent pseudobulbs, each with up to three thin, flat leaves and cup-shaped, relatively short-lived flowers with scale-like brown hairs on the outside. There are about 120 species occurring from tropical to subtropical Asia to the south-west Pacific.

<i>Phreatia</i> Genus of orchids

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<i>Tropidia</i> (plant) Genus of orchids

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<i>Robiquetia</i> Genus of orchids

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<i>Trichoglottis</i> Genus of orchid

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<i>Pholidota</i> (plant) Genus of orchids

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<i>Vrydagzynea</i> Genus of orchids

Vrydagzynea, commonly called tonsil orchids, is a genus of orchids in the tribe Cranichideae. About forty five species of Vrydagzynea have been formally described. They are native to India, Taiwan, Southeast Asia, Malesia, Melanesia and Polynesia. A single species in Australia is possibly extinct. They have thinly textured, stalked leaves and small, dull-coloured resupinate flowers with the dorsal sepal and petals overlapping to form a hood over the column.

<i>Hetaeria</i> Species of orchid

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<i>Octarrhena</i> Genus of orchids

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<i>Peristylus</i> Genus of orchids

Peristylus, sometimes commonly known as ogre orchids or bog orchids is a genus of flowering plants from the orchid family, Orchidaceae. It consists of over 100 known species found across much of eastern and southern Asia as well as in Australia and on many islands of the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Corybas", World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP), Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew , retrieved 2016-07-06
  2. 1 2 3 4 Hoffman, Noel; Brown, Andrew (2011), Orchids of South-West Australia. (3rd ed.), Gooseberry Hill: Noel Hoffman, pp. 274–280, ISBN   9780646562322
  3. 1 2 3 Pridgeon, Alec M.; Cribb, Phillip J.; Chase, Mark W.; Rasmussen, Finn, eds. (2001), Genera Orchidacearum, Volume 2, Orchidoideae (part 1), Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, pp. 70–74, ISBN   978-0198507109
  4. 1 2 "Corybas". FloraBase . Western Australian Government Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.
  5. 1 2 Jones, D.L., Genus Corybas, Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney: plantnet, retrieved 2016-07-06
  6. 1 2 Corybas, Royal Botanic Gardens, Victoria, retrieved 2020-07-29
  7. 1 2 Corybas, State Herbarium of South Australia:efloraSA, retrieved 2020-07-29
  8. "Corybas". APNI. Retrieved 4 May 2018.
  9. Salisbury, R.A. & Hooker, W. (1805), "83 (figure and notes)", The Paradisus Londonensis : or Coloured Figures of Plants Cultivated in the Vicinity of the Metropolis, vol. 1–2, London: W. Hooker (printer D.N. Shury), doi:10.5962/bhl.title.53520, OCLC   1864969
  10. Salisbury & Hooker (1805), "Nomen a floribus Κορυβαντος velatum caput simulantibus"
  11. Brown, Roland Wilbur (1956), The Composition of Scientific Words, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, p. 502
  12. Jones, D. L.; Clements, M. A. (2002). "Nomenclatural Notes Arising from Studies into the Tribe Diurideae". Orchadian. 13: 443.
  13. Hopper, Stephen D. (2009). "Taxonomic turmoil down-under: recent developments in Australian orchid systematics". Annals of Botany. 104 (3): 447–455. doi:10.1093/aob/mcp090. ISSN   0305-7364. PMC   2720664 . PMID   19398445.
  14. "Genus Corybas". PlantNET - New South Wales Flora Online. Retrieved 2018-02-01.
  15. Lehnebach C.A., Zeller, A.J., Frericks, J, Ritchie P. (2016) Five new species of Corybas (Diurideae, Orchidaceae) endemic to New Zealand and phylogeny of the Nematoceras clade. Phytotaxa 270: 1–24. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.270.1.1
  16. "Corybas Salisb.", World Checklist of Selected Plant Families , Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew , retrieved 2021-12-08