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Showing posts from April, 2020

Jumellea teretifolia

Plants have been growing and flowering, regardless of the change in our world, but I haven't updated the blog for a while.  But this pretty orchid is in bloom, so I wanted to upload the photos. Jumellea is a moderately small genus with about 57 species (Rakotoarivelo et al. 2012).  Some species of Jumellea are similar to each other and difficult to identify (for me), but J. teretifolia is easily recognizable due to the cylindrical leaves (as the species epithet indicates).  The narrow and long flower parts give the elegant look.  This species is endemic to central highlands (1100-1500m) of Madagascar (Provinces of  Antananarivo , Fianarantsoa , Toamasina ; Cribb & Hermans 2009). Pollination biology of this species was studied by Nilsson et al. (1987).  Three interesting observations can be highlighted.  First, this species appears to rely on a single pollinator species.  Among 6 species of hawkmoths with long probosces (straw-like, elongated mouth parts), caught b