Cottonia Wight
Subfamily Epidendroideae
Tribe Vandeae
Sub tribe Aeridinae
Derivation of name The name commemorates Major-General Cotton, an English officer of the 19th century who collected plants in southwestern India.
Cottonia is monospecific genus
Cottonia peduncularis Lindl.
In Cat. Orch.-Samml. Schiller, ed. 3: 22 (1857)
Vanda peduncularis Lindl. in Gen. Sp. Orchid. Pl.: 216 (1833)
Cottonia macrostachya Wight in Icon. Pl. Ind. Orient.: t. 1755 (1851)
Ecology This is very common orchid at Sindhudurg found growing as epiphyte on Strychnos nux vomica, Mangifera indica, Caryea arborea, Terminalia paniculata and many other trees, shrubs and lianas
Stem 0.7-1 cm thick, closely sheathed.
Leaves 5-17 X 1-2 cm, lorate, spreading, straight or recurved, sessile, narrowly elliptic-oblong, entire, coriaceous, keeled on the underside and abruptly ending in 2 unequal rounded lobes with a broad acute sinus in between.
Inflorescence 7-8 flowered raceme, flowers at the very apex of the branches of peduncle, usually opening one at a time.
Peduncles 9-80 cm, greyish-green brownish mottled with purple, bracteate at the nodes, with 2-3 branches usually near the apex.
Bracts minute, cupular, brown.
Flowers fleshy, bracteate, pedicellate Pedicel with ovary about 1.2 cm long, slightly curved, greenish-brown.
Sepals and petals recurved backwards ± along the ovary, brownish yellow with 4-6 reddish-brown longitudinal streaks;
Sepals dorsal sepal 9x4 mm, obovate-oblong, concave in the upper half, acute;
lateral sepals 8x4.5 mm, ovate-oblong, subobtuse. 5-nerved;
Petals 8-9x3 mm narrowly obovate-oblong, obtuse-truncate, 5-nerved.
Lip 1.4x 0.8 cm, fleshy purple with a central brownish-yellow streak about 0.6 cm long, and a golden-yellow villous margin; lateral lobes ear-like, small; mid lobe panduriform with an abruptly acute apex.
Column 5X4 mm, puberulous, footless, yellowish-brown; from the sides of the column just above the stigmatic surface 2 projections are given out which meet in the centre to form a ledge, on which the gland of the pollinia rests.
Anther 2-celled, subpandurate, broadly retuse at apex; the underside reddish-brown with a central blue-black streak on the upper half, and yellow on the lower half;
Pollinia 2, yellow, waxy, ovoid; caudicle 1mm long, with a small, somewhat square gland. Stigmatic surface U-shaped, yellow with a red margin and 2 red longitudinal streaks in the centre.
Capsules 5-6x0.5-0.7 cm, oblong-fusiform, strongly ribbed, pedicels 2 cm long.
Flowering: March
Fruiting: May onwards