Species Information - Phreatia matthewsii

Phreatia matthewsii Rchb.f., Otia Bot. Hamburg. 1 (1878) 55

Type: Matthews s.n. (Society Isl., IV-1830); Wilkes expedition (or Rich, Pickering or Agati) s.n. (Tahiti) (holo W?)

Synonyms:

• Eria matthewsii (Rchb.f.) Drake, Fl. Polyn. Franc. (1892) 213
• Epidendrum myosurus G.Forst., Fl. Ins. Austral. (1786) 60
  - Type: Forster s.n. (iso LE; GOET)
• Dendrobium myosurus (G.Forst.) Sw., Nova Acta Regiae Soc. Sci. Upsal. 6 (1799) 82
• Oberonia myosurus (G.Forst.) Lindl., Gen. Sp. Orchid. Pl. (1830) 16 (excl. descr.)
• Eria myosurus (G.Forst.) Rchb.f. in Seem., Fl. Vitiensis (1868) 300 (non Rchb.f.)
• Iridorchis myosurus (G.Forst.) Kuntze, Rev. Gen. Pl. (1891) 669
• Phreatia myosurus (G.Forst.) Ames, Orchidaceae 2 (1908) 203 (non (Rchb.f.) Lindl.)
• Octarrhena myosurus (G.Forst.) P.F.Hunt, Kew Bull. 24 (1970) 95
• Phreatia inversa Schltr. in K.Schum. & Lauterb., Nachtr. Fl. Deutsch. Schutzgeb. Südsee (1905) 187
  - Type: Schlechter 14644 (holo B, lost; iso BO, BR, K, P)
• Phreatia neocaledonica Schltr., Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 39 (1906) 78
  - Type: Schlechter 14755 (syn B, lost; iso LE); 15228 (syn B, lost; iso L, LE)
• Phreatia upoluensis Schltr., Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 3 (1907) 319
  - Type: Betche 36
• Phreatia reineckei Schltr., Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 9 (1911) 109
  - Type: Vaupel 658 (B, lost); Reinecke 239; 292; 587 (B, lost)

Epiphytic, erect, small, not branching, 3-5 cm high; roots filiform, elongated, flexuose, glabrous. Stem very short, almost lacking, entirely covered with the leaf-sheaths. Leaves distichous, erect-patent, obliquely linear-ligulate, apiculate, at the base narrowed into a slender petiole, rather fleshy, 2-3.5 by 0.2-0.3 cm, leaf-sheaths dilated. Inflorescence erect, laxly several-flowered, secund, about as long as the leaves, with a few distant peduncle-scales, glabrous. Floral bracts lanceolate, acuminate, surpassing the pedicellate ovary, glabrous. Flowers hardly more than 0.1 cm diam. Median sepal ovate, obtuse, glabrous. Lateral sepals as long as the median sepal, shortly acuminate, dilated along the front margin. Petals obliquely ovate, oblong, subobtuse, glabrous, somewhat smaller than the sepals. Lip obovate-cuneate, at the apex slightly bilobulate, notched, with a minute tooth in the sinus, glabrous, slightly longer than the sepals. Column short; foot very short; clinandrium low; rostellum erect, minutely and indistinctly 4-lobulate, with equal lobules. Anther reniform, in front broadly obtuse, glabrous; pollinia obliquely pear-shaped; stipe linear, as long as the pollinia; ovary shortly pedicellate, clavate, glabrous, hardly more than 0.1 cm long.
(After Schlechter, 1905, as Phreatia inversa Schltr.)

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