Cleisostoma
Sub family: Epidendroideae
Tribe: Vandeae
Sub tribe: Aeridinae
Derivation of Name: From Greek Kleistos, closed & stoma, mouth referring to mouth spur narrowed by callosities
Salient Features
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Epiphytic or rarely lithophytic or terrestrial herbs.
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Stem rigid, erect or pendent, rarely creeping, usually simple, many-noded. Leaves few to many, distichous, dorsiventrally flattened and conduplicate or terete, apex bilobed or acute, coriaceous, articulate to a tubular sheathing base.
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Inflorescence lateral, axillary or opposite leaves, perforating the leaf-sheath, racemose or paniculate, erect, horizontal or pendent, few- to many-flowered; floral bracts much shorter than pedicel and ovary.
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Flowers fleshy, resupinate.
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Sepals free, usually spreading, slightly unequal.
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Petals free, usually spreading, similar to sepals or smaller and narrower.
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Labellum adnate to column at its base or posterior margins of side lobes, immobile, trilobed, spurred at base; side lobes ascending, sub deltoid; midlobe porrect or erect, usually deltoid or sagittate, often with a prominent callus or thickening near base; disc often with longitudinal lamellae or ridges;
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Spur conical, cylindrical or rarely shortly saccate, often longitudinally septate inside, rarely septum reduced to a narrow keel, usually with a prominent callus on back wall near mouth and often with outgrowths on front wall closing the entrance, the callus grooved, either alone or in conjunction with an opposing callus on the midlobe, completely obscuring opening to spur.
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Column with foot inconspicuous or absent; clinandrium shallowly excavate; anther cap terminal, operculate, frequently rostrate, pollinia four, arranged into two appressed, unequal masses, waxy, semi-globular, with a common stipe, stipe usually narrow, linear or broadened near apex, rarely broadly rectangular, viscidium single, subglobose to broad and horseshoe-shaped; stigma transverse, deeply recessed.
Cleisostoma section Subulatum Seidenf.
Salient Features:
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Leaves dorsiventral, not terete, acute, often caudate or with a mucronate apex;
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Stipe simple, usually linear, tapering or clavate; viscidium usually simple and subglobose.
This section is represented by single species at Sindhudurg district :
Cleisostoma tenuifolium (L.) Garay
In Bot. Mus. Leafl. 23: 175 (1972)
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Aerides tenuifolia (L.) Moon in Cat. Pl. Ceylon : 60 (1824)
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Cymbidium tenuifolium (L.) Willd. in Sp. Pl., ed. 4. 4: 103 (1805)
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Epidendrum tenuifolium L. in Sp. Pl.: 952 (1753)
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Saccolabium tenuifolium (L.) Alston in Ann. Roy. Bot. Gard. (Peradeniya) 11: 205 (1929)
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Sarcanthus tenuifolius (L.) Seidenf. in Dansk Bot. Ark. 27(4): 37 (1971)
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Sarcochilus tenuifolius (L.) Náves in F.M.Blanco, Fl. Filip., ed. 3. 4(13A): 238 (1880)
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Cleisostoma pauciflorum (Wight) Senghas in F.R.R.Schlechter, Orchideen Beschreib. Kult. Zücht., ed. 3, 1(22): 1340 (1989)
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Cymbidium tenuifolium Lindl. in Gen. Sp. Orchid. Pl.: 167 (1833), nom. illeg.
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Gastrochilus acuminatus (Thwaites) Kuntze in Revis. Gen. Pl. 2: 661 (1891)
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Luisia tenuifolia Blume in Rumphia 4: 50 (1849)
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Saccolabium acuminatum Thwaites in Enum. Pl. Zeyl.: 304 (1861)
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Saccolabium peninsulare (Dalzell) Alston in H.Trimen, Handb. Fl. Ceylon 6(Suppl.): 278 (1931)
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Sarcanthus pauciflorus Wight in Icon. Pl. Ind. Orient. 5: t. 1747 (1851)
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Sarcanthus peninsularis Dalzell in Hooker's J. Bot. Kew Gard. Misc. 3: 343 (1851)
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Sarcochilus tenuifolius var. majus Náves in F.M.Blanco, Fl. Filip., ed. 3. 4(13A): 238 (1880)
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IUCN Red Data Book Status: Critically Endangered
Ecology: Pendulous epiphytic on Mangifera indica tree in semievergreen forest in dense shade near stream
Stem pendulous, dirty-green; internodes about 1 cm long, 3-5 mm thick.
Leaves 6-14x0.7-1 cm, thick, coriaceous, narrowly linear-oblong, somewhat acuminate, ± constricted about 1.5-2 cm, from the sharp apex.
Inflorescence Racemes pointing downwards, usually arising opposite a leaf, simple, about 2-8 cm long.
Flowers about 7X 7 mm, reddish-yellow, bracteate, shortly pedicellate. Pedicel with ovary about 2-3 mm long, pale yellowish.
Bracts 1.5X 1 mm, minute, scarious, persistent, oblong, subacuminate.
Sepals 4X 2.5 mm, spreading, very fleshy, yellow with 2 broad brown-red bands along the margins, broadly oblong, entire, glabrous; dorsal sepal obtuse; lateral ones somewhat oblique, acute.
Petals 3X 1.5-1.75 mm, of the same colour as the sepals, very fleshy, oblong, subfalcate, acute, entire, glabrous.
Labellum: 2.5 X2 mm, 3-lobed, produced backwards and down wards into the spur; lateral lobes erect, triangular, acute, minute, pale violet; midlobe somewhat incurved, subacute, fleshy, arrow-head-like, with 2 yellow rounded calli in between the lateral lobes.
Spur 2.5X 1.5 mm conical, obtuse, yellow, with a longitudinal septum from the mouth of the spur, ending in a rounded central callus in between the. lateral calli of the midlobe.
Column about 1.5 mm long, stout, pale yellowish.
Anther 2X 1.5 mm oblong with the anterior lip truncate and somewhat extended;
Pollinia 4, in pairs, globular with a narrow caudicle and a small gland.
Capsules 17-19x6-8mm narrowly oblong, almost sessile, strongly ribbed.
Flowering: July.
Fruiting: November.