A new Coelogyne species from Indonesia
by Peter O'Byrne
About a century ago, orchids from the genus Coelogyne were commonly grown as house plants, being valued for their abundance of large, mostly white flowers and the ease with which they grow. The advent of the ubiquitous Dendrobium, Vanda and Cattleya hybrids has relegated Coelogyne to near-total horticultural obscurity. There are about 200 Coelogyne species distributed from the Himalayas to the Pacific Islands; Peninsular Malaysia has about 28 species, Sumatra has about 31, and Java has about 13. Every now and then a new species is found, but these are often not recognised as new; it is commonly (but erroneously) assumed that all Coelogyne species are already well known.This new species is a case in point. The plant was collected, years ago, somewhere in Indonesia. A cutting was given to Mr Tommy Sng, who grew it for several years in his garden in Singapore. It never flowered, so it slowly got moved to the remotest back corner of his collection. In April 1995, Mr Sng noticed that the plant was finally flowering; he asked me to identify it. A thorough check of the literature failed to produce an identity, so, suspecting a new species, I asked Dr. E.F. deVogel (Reijksherbarium, Leiden, Netherlands), to help. He confirmed that it was indeed a new species. Although the plant has not yet been formally given a name, in Singapore it has become known as
Coelogyne tomiensis, after Mr Tommy Sng. The details of this easily-recognised new species, which probably belongs to Section Speciosae, are as follows.General description: This mature specimen has a close cluster of single-leaved pseudobulbs. It stands only about 15cm high when in flower. The plant forms several inflorescences at once, and flowering habit is proteranthous, that is, each inflorescence emerges from the lead shoot on the rhizome, flowering before the shoot has matured; even the leaf is highly underdeveloped at flowering time. The shoot matures after flowering. The hairless inflorescence (combined with the young shoot) is 13cm tall, with up to 4 flowers evenly spaced along the 7cm length of the peduncle above the immature shoot. Flowers are about 50mm long (35mm excluding the reflexed petals) and face outwards. The sepal/ petal colour is creamy-yellow with a hint of pale green; this colour is similar to chlorine gas. Sepals are not widespreading, petals are fully reflexed. The very large lip is a rather rusty brown colour; the sidelobes have darker red-brown veins externally and their forward margins are almost black; the midlobe apex is cream. Three brown-tipped denticulate keels extend from the base of the lip; the central keel stops short of the midlobe while the outer pair converge briefly before terminating on the central midlobe. The column is light green with a grass-green flush on each side. The anther cap is bright yellow. Flowering recorded in April (in cultivation in Singapore). Flowers last about 7 days.
Roots : from rhizome, - 1mm diam, smooth, white with green tips.
Rhizome : creeping, 5mm diam, covered in brown sheaths.
Pseudobulbs : closely spaced (5-10mm apart) on rhizome, erect, <55mm high x 30mm wide x 20mm deep, (ie slightly flattened), ovoid, green, becoming wrinkled and 4-5 angled with age. Base sheathed when young; dried brown sheath-remnants are persistent.
Leaf : single, apical, on 3cm petiole, arching, elliptical, <23cm x 6cm, thin, not leathery, green, pleated; tip acuminate.
Infloreseence : single, proteranthous, hairless, erect, <13cm (of which - 6cm is the young shoot), 4-flowered, all open at same time, peduncle - 2mm diam, smooth, green, without basal bracts. Floral bracts deciduous and not seen on this specimen. Pedicel/ovary 10mm, brown. Ovary ovoid, 6-winged.
Flower: <50mm long x 35mm high x 28mm wide. Sepals not wide-spreading, concave, thick and waxy, elliptical, margins reflexed near base, externally keeled along centre, apex obtuse and mucronate. Dorsal sepal: 36mm x 13mm. Lateral sepals: 34mm x 10mm, margins unequal. Petals reflexed, drooping towards apex, almost linear, 32mm x 2mm; apex acute. Lip very large, porrect, midlobe apex decurved; 32mm long x 22mm wide (flattened); sidelobes erect, somewhat incurved and partly obscuring the column, elliptical, forward margin obtuse and erose; midlobe decurved, broadly ovate-elliptical, margins wavy and erose in lower half, apex obtuse and somewhat 3-toothed; keels 3 from near lip base, upper surfaces toothed, middle keel not reaching midlobe, outer pair extend onto midlobe, converging slightly, remnants of another pair of keels occur on midlobe base near the margins. Column 20mm, decurved, hooded, blunt with erose apex.*
(Article and pictures extracted from Malayan Orchid Review Vol 29/95)
The informaton shown above is known to be accurate,
however if you do find any errors, please kindly contact Tommy Sng
and the errors can be rectified.