Bulbophyllum section Tapeinoglossum (Schltr.) J.J.Sm., Nova Guinea 12 (1916) 406
Minute or small epiphytes. Rhizomes creeping or straggling; rhizome bracts thin, approx. glabrous, caducous including the veins. Roots sprouting below the pseudobulbs, spreading, glabrous, locally slightly hirsute. Pseudobulbs conspicuous compared to the size of the plant, 1-leafed, with shoots usually sprouting from its basal node and free, not fused to the pseudobulb. Leaves persistent, thick, veins inconspicuous. Inflorescences sprouting from nodes along the length of the rhizome, single; 1-flowered. Peduncle shorter than the pseudobulbs, peduncle bracts 3, (sub-)basal. Flowers: floral bracts tubular; pedicel with the basal node well above the attachment of the floral bract, longer than the ovary. Sepals: the median connate to the laterals for a short distance near the base, 15— 16 mm long, elliptic to obovate, obtuse, margins ciliolate, thin, 5-veined, surface shortly papillose-hirsute towards the margins; the laterals connate along the lower margins, shorter than the median; c. 11 mm long, elliptic to obovate, obtuse, margins glabrous to papillose or hirsute, thin, 5-veined, adaxial surface long-hirsute, abaxial surface shortly papillose-hirsute. Petals c. 2 mm long, elliptic to ovate, rounded to obtuse, glabrous, thin, 3-veined. Lip mobile on a thin ligament, without auricles, undivided, 2— 2.5 mm long, ovate, margins entire, glabrous; adaxially concave, with two parallel, hirsute ridges, surface otherwise approx. glabrous. Column with the rostellum front well receding in between the stelidia, stigma wide, without keels inside, or with a single keel on the back wall, proximally not protruding, column foot deeply concave, half-way its length constricted by the inwards-folded margins, free part short; tip without teeth. Stelidia less than 1/2 of the length of the column, short, triangular, with or without a small tooth along the upper margin, close to the tip, with an inconspicuous, rounded wing along the lower margin. Anther abaxially (?) furrowed, front inflated and deeply concave, front margin not drawn out. Pollinia 2, without appendages.
Distribution
New Guinea: 2 taxa (2 names). Endemic.
Notes
Morphologically in between section Hyalosema and section Hoplandra; differs from both in: median sepal fused to the laterals proximally, column foot concave, constricted; from the first in: flowers smaller, pollinia 2; from the latter in: median sepal flat. Section Tapeinoglossum includes 2 species. The description is based on Bulbophyllum centrosemiflorum J.J.Sm. Of Bulbophyllum nannodes Schltr. nothing is known but the original description, its status is uncertain.
The following taxa in this program belong to this Section:
Bulbophyllum centrosemiflorum
Bulbophyllum nannodes