Anguloa

The genus Anguloa from the orchid family (Orchidaceae) comprises nine species, all of which occur in South and Central America. The plants are quite large for an orchid and usually grow on the ground or on rocks.

Description

All species of this genus form a creeping rhizome in a short period of pseudobulbs. These are oval and somewhat compressed laterally with several indistinct lateral ridges and consist of a single internode.

Rhizomes and pseudobulbs are surrounded by Inferior to the top of the pseudobulbs sit three leaves. The leaves are Plikat (folded), with prominent venation on the underside. They run off at the stalk base. The pseudobulbs reach up to 20 centimeters long, the leaves up to one meter.

The inflorescence appears laterally from the base of the pseudobulbs, and bear only one flower. The resupinierten flowers are fleshy or waxy, tall and white, pink or yellow. The three sepals are zusammengeneigt bell-shaped and surround the petals.

The two lateral sepals are fused with the column to a small bag-like depression. The lip is three-lobed, articulated at the base adherent to the column, which include two side lobes, the column tubular, the middle lobe terminates in a curved tip. On the lip is a callus. The column is even, at the base with an extension, in which the lip is grown ("column-foot").

The dust sheet sits terminal and is hinabgebogen to the column axis. Side of the dust sheet located on the column, two small appendages. The four hard, yellow pollinia are on an elongated stem with a little heart-shaped adhesive organ (Viscidium) connected.

The species are pollinated by male orchid bees (Euglossini). The weight of insects, the hinged lip mounted unbalanced and waves against the column. There, the bees using the sticky Viscidiums the pollinia attached to the thorax or already on insect sticky pollinia are placed on the scar.

Dissemination

The species of the genus occur in the northwestern Anguloa South America from Venezuela through Colombia, Ecuador and Peru until after Bolivia. They grow on rocks there, the bank failure or occasionally as epiphytes in humid forests at altitudes from 1500 to 2500 meters.



Source: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anguloa

See Also: International Flower Delivery, Florist