New orchid species discovered in Madagascar

João Farminhão, a researcher at the Centre for Functional Ecology (CFE) of the Faculty of Science and Technology of the University of Coimbra (FCTUC) and the UC Botanical Garden (JBUC), led an international study that revealed a new species of Madagascar orchid with a nectar tube that reaches 33 centimetres (cm) in length.

In this investigation, now published in the journal Current Biology, this new orchid, called giant solenangis (Solenangis impraedicta), is described. «With its small 2 cm long flowers, it presents, proportionally, the largest floral tube existing among the approximately 370 thousand species of flowering plants, constituting a new paradigm of ecological hyperspecialization, with great value for teaching evolution», explains João Farminhão.

The scientific name of the giant solenangis, impraedicta (unpredicted in Latin), «is an allusion to the unlikely discovery of a new case of independent evolution of a disproportionate spur and a bow to Darwin's prediction, which took 130 years to confirm», reveals the author of the study, contextualizing that this prediction about the existence of butterflies with a giant tongue, in Madagascar, capable of reaching the nectar of the angreco-comet orchid (Angraecum sesquipedale), with a floral tube more than 30 cm long, is one of the most famous conjectures in the history of biology, associated with the genesis of the concept of coevolution.

«The nocturnal butterfly Xanthopan praedicta is one of the only possible pollinators. In addition to the angreco-comet, until now, only two other species of orchids from Madagascar have spurs of comparable length. Since 1965, a species with such an extreme adaptation to pollination by Darwin's butterflies has not been discovered», he states.

«Unfortunately, this species is threatened with extinction due to the destruction of its habitat associated with mining exploitation and, potentially, the illegal harvesting of plants for the lucrative international orchid trade,» laments the author. To protect it from collectors' greed, the exact coordinates of the places where it occurs in nature have not been disclosed.

Furthermore, «to ensure its conservation in botanical gardens around the world and satisfy the future demand for this species in private collections, the production of seeds has already begun to propagate the species in cultivation», he concludes.

The scientific article "A new orchid species expands Darwin's predicted pollination guild in Madagascar" can be consulted here.