Bulbophyllum section Pedilochilus (Schltr.) J.J.Verm. [in press]
Small to medium-sized epiphytes, lithopytes or terrestrials. Rhizomes (short-)creeping; rhizome bracts thin, surface glabrous to colliculate, caducous without more persistent veins, sometimes weathering in a woolly mass. Roots sprouting from nodes along the entire rhizome, spreading, glabrous to finely hirsute, coarsely and sparsely hirsute in some species. Pseudobulbs conspicuous compared to the size of the plant, 1-leafed, with the shoots sprouting at its basal node and free or fused to the pseudobulb over up to approx. 1/2 of the length of the latter. Leaves persistent, thick, veins inconspicuous. Inflorescences sprouting at the (sub-)basal node of the pseudobulbs; single to few-fasciculate, 1-flowered. Peduncle shorter than the pseudobulbs to longer than the leaves, bracts 2— 3, all near the base of the peduncle or scattered along it. Flowers per sympodium 1 open at the time; floral bracts tubular; pedicel with the basal node well above the attachment of the floral bract, approx. as long as or longer than the ovary. Sepals free, all of approx. equal length or the lateral slightly longer; 6— 22 mm long, elliptic to (ob-)ovate, obtuse to acuminate, margins entire, glabrous to papillose or ciliate; thin, 3— 5-veined, surface glabrous to (partially) hirsute. Petals 4— 10 mm long, deeply concave, wedge-shaped, rhombiform, (ob-)ovate to elliptic or oblong, distinctly unguiculate, truncate to acuminate, margins entire to slightly erose (distally deeply lacerate in Bulbophyllum coiloglossum), glabrous to papillose or ciliolate; thin but with the midvein abaxially distinctly keeled, 1-veined, surface glabrous. Lip immobile, fused to the column foot by a thick strip of tissue, with distinct, often somewhat retrorse, rounded auricles close to the base, undivided, 5— 15 mm long, elliptic to (ob-)ovate and deeply saccate, distinctly unguiculate, with a small, thickened, recurved, ovate to triangular top part overhanging the front margin of the saccate part, glabrous; adaxially in between the auricles with a distinct, transverse ridge with a (deeply) concave and sometimes 2-toothed front margin and a distinctly convex back margin with protrudes as a median tooth, the saccate part with or without three longitudinal ridges following the veins. Column with rostellum front receding in between the stelidia, stigma narrow, without keels inside, proximally not protruding, column foot more or less widening and thickening towards the tip, ending in 1 or two calli around which the lip is attached; free part long. Stelidia slightly shorter than of the column length or longer, distinct, narrowly triangular to subulate, with or without a small, antrorse, triangular tooth along the upper margin, without tooth along the lower, at most a slight, rounded widening present. Anther abaxially with a prominent, rounded crest, front concave, front margin more or less drawn out. Pollinia 2 or 4, with the inner more than half as long as the outer; without appendages.
Distribution
New Guinea: 31 taxa. Altogether 33 provisionally accepted taxa (37 names): Sulawesi, New Guinea, West Pacific.
Notes
Uniquely identified by the lip shape; section Codonosiphon with a saccate lip lack the auricles near the base. The thick rhizomes with bracts weathering to a woolly mass provide a field characteristic.
The following taxa in this program belong to Pedilochilus:
Pedilochilus alpinum
Pedilochilus angustifolium
Pedilochilus brachiatum
Pedilochilus brachypus
Pedilochilus ciliolatum
Pedilochilus clemensiae
Pedilochilus coiloglossum
Pedilochilus cyatheicola
Pedilochilus dischorense
Pedilochilus flavum
Pedilochilus grandifolium
Pedilochilus guttulatum
Pedilochilus humile
Pedilochilus kermesinostriatum
Pedilochilus longipes
Pedilochilus macrorhinum
Pedilochilus majum
Pedilochilus obovatum
Pedilochilus papuanum
Pedilochilus parvulum
Pedilochilus perpusillum
Pedilochilus petiolatum
Pedilochilus petrophilum
Pedilochilus piundaundense
Pedilochilus psychrophilum
Pedilochilus pusillum
Pedilochilus sarawakatense
Pedilochilus stictanthum
Pedilochilus subalpinum
Pedilochilus sulphureum
Pedilochilus terrestre