Rare new orchid species just discovered in the Andes
Rare new orchid species just discovered in the Andes
Date:
August 11, 2021
Source:
Pensoft Publishers
Summary:
Three new endemic orchid species were just discovered in Ecuador. Lepanthes microprosartima, L. caranqui and L. oro-lojaensis are proof that Ecuador -- one of the world's megadiverse countries -- hides much more biodiversity waiting to be explored.
For its size, Ecuador has an impressive biological diversity that harbours a unique set of species and ecosystems, many of them endemic or threatened. Because of this great biodiversity, most studies still focus on recording species richness and very little is known about how these species actually interact. This is why in 2017 Dr Catherine H. Graham from the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, with support from the European Research Council and local NGO Aves y Conservation, initiated an ambitious project in the northwestern Andes of Ecuador to study the ecology of plant-hummingbird interactions along an altitudinal and land-use gradient.
To this end, researchers established 18 transects in areas of well-preserved cloud forest and sites at different altitude and with different levels of disturbance, and visited them monthly to count the flowers that attract hummingbirds and to place time-lapse cameras in flowering plants.
Several new species to science were discovered during the intensive botanical work of identifying the nearly 400 plant species recorded by the surveys and cameras. One of them is a new orchid species called Lepanthes microprosartima.
Found on the western slopes of Pichincha volcano in northern Ecuador, L. microprosartima is endemic to the Yanacocha and Verdecocha reserves, where it grows at 3200 to 3800 m above sea level in evergreen montane forest -- remarkably, this species can thrive even under deep shade in the forest.
More:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/08/210811131546.htm