New orchid species found in SW China

BEIJING -- A new orchid species was discovered during a recent plant resource survey in the Tongbiguan Provincial-level Nature Reserve in Southwest China's Yunnan province.

The discovery, made by a team consisting of researchers from the reserve and the Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, has been published in the journal Phytotaxa.

Through morphological and molecular systematic research comparisons, researchers determined that the species was a new species of Calanthe in the Orchidaceae family, and named it Calanthe yingjiangensis.

It is similar to Calanthe puberula, but it differs from the latter in having a midlob of lip with an elliptic yellow spot near the base of the column and four purple veins.

At present, Calanthe yingjiangensis has only been found in the understory at an altitude of 1,600 to 1,800 meters above sea level in Yingjiang county, Yunnan.