Orchids of the genus Gastrodiaare found across temperate and tropical Asia, Oceania and Madagascar. They are mycoheterotrophs; parasitic plants which obtain nutrients and sugars from Mycorrhizal Fungi (Fungi which normally form symbiotic relationships with plants). They are a diverse group with over fifty species ranging in size from under five to over 100 cm.
In a paper published in the journal Phytotaxa on 5 August 2014, Kenji Suetsugu of the Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies at Kyoto University describes a new species of Gastrodiafrom Takashima Island, off the coast of Kagoshima Prefecture on Kyushu Island, Japan.
The new species is named Gastrodia flexistyloides, though no explanation is given for this name. It is a 9-18 cm leafless Orchid, brown in colour with brown flowers with white spots and a tuberous rhizome (i.e. a tuberous root that can persist below ground outside the growing season and regrow into a new plant when conditions are favourable). The flowers do not open, the plant apparently reproducing entirely by self-fertilisation. Flowers are produced in mid-March to early April, seeds are contained within fruit produced from early April to early May. Gastrodia flexistyloideswas found living in Bamboo forests.
Flowering plant of Gastrodia flexistyloides. Scale bar is 2 cm. Suetsugu (2014).
See also…
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