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Lowiaceae, a Family New to the Flora of China

Wu Tê-Lin   

  1.   (Academia Sinica South China Institute of Botany)
  • Received:1900-01-01 Revised:1900-01-01 Online:1964-10-18 Published:1964-10-18
  • Contact: Wu Tê-Lin

Abstract:

  The occurrence of the monocotyledonous family Lowiaceae in the Chinese flora is
reported for the first time in this paper in which two new species, Orchidantha chinensis
and O. insularis L. T. Wu are proposed.  Up to now, Orchidantha N. E. Brown, the sole
genus in the family includes only six species with a range of distribution extending from
Borneo, through the Malay Peninsula, to Thailand and Laos.
      In the present review of the family, the eight known species are grouped into two
sections characterized as follows:
     Sect. 1. Orchidantha
           Labellum sessile segmentis calycis simile.
      1.  O. borneensis N. E. Brown; 2. O. chinensis T. L. Wu; 3. O. insularis T. L.
           Wu; 4. O. laotica Larsen.
           Typus sect. O. borneensis N. E. Brown.
     Sect. 2. Lowia (Scortech.) T. W. Wu, grad. nov.
           Lowia Scortech. Nuov. Giorn. Bot. Ital. 18: 308. 1886-pro genere.
           Labellum unguiculatum segmentis calycis valde dissimile.
      5.  0. maxillarioides (Ridl.) Hook. f.; 6. O. calcarea Henderson;  7.  O. siamensis
           Larsen; 8. O. longiflora (Scortech.) Ridley.
           Typus sect. O. longiflora (Scortech.) Ridley.
     Besides the Latin descriptions of the new species incorporated in the Chinese text,
a brief history of the family, general discussions on systematic relationship accompanied
by a comparative table of allied families, a distributional map, and a key to species are
included in this preliminary study.