''Bromheadia'', commonly known as reed orchids, is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

of about 29 species of

orchid Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Orchids are cosmopolitan plants that are found in almost every habitat on Eart ...

s in the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Orchidaceae. They are

evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has Leaf, foliage that remains green and functional throughout the year. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which lose their foliage completely during the winter or dry season. Consisting of many diffe ...

terrestrial Terrestrial refers to things related to land or the planet Earth, as opposed to extraterrestrial. Terrestrial may also refer to: * Terrestrial animal, an animal that lives on land opposed to living in water, or sometimes an animal that lives on o ...

and

epiphytic An epiphyte is a plant or plant-like organism that grows on the surface of another plant and derives its moisture and nutrients from the air, rain, water (in marine environments) or from debris accumulating around it. The plants on which epiphyt ...

plants with unbranched stems, the leaves arranged in two rows along the flowering stem. The flowers appear in succession near the end of the flowering stem with the

sepal A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 Etymology The term ''sepalum'' ...

s and

petal Petals are modified leaves that form an inner whorl surrounding the reproductive parts of flowers. They are often brightly coloured or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. All of the petals of a flower are collectively known as the ''corol ...

s free from each other. The labellum is like a landing platform and has three lobes. They are

native Native may refer to: People * '' Jus sanguinis'', nationality by blood * '' Jus soli'', nationality by location of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Nat ...

to areas from

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the equator, where the sun may shine directly overhead. This contrasts with the temperate or polar regions of Earth, where the Sun can never be directly overhead. This is because of Earth's ax ...

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

to northern

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

Description

Plants in the genus ''Bromheadia'' are evergreen, terrestrial or epiphytic,

sympodial In botany, sympodial growth is a bifurcating branching pattern where one branch develops more strongly than the other, resulting in the stronger branches forming the primary shoot and the weaker branches appearing laterally. A sympodium, als ...

herbs Herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnish (food), garnishing food, for medicinal purposes, or for fragrances. Culinary use typi ...

with leafy stems on a short, creeping

rhizome In botany and dendrology, a rhizome ( ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and Shoot (botany), shoots from its Node (botany), nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from ...

. The leaves are arranged in two rows along an erect, unbranched stem with the flattened, leathery leaves along the upper two-thirds. The flowers are short-lived and appear singly, in succession near the ends of the flowering stem. The flowers are relatively large, resupinate and usually white, creamy yellow or reddish. The

s are narrower but longer than

s and are often a different colour. The labellum projects forwards and has three lobes with the side lobes erect and there are two

pollinia A pollinium (: pollinia) is a coherent mass of pollen grains in a plant that are the product of only one anther, but are transferred, during pollination, as a single unit. This is regularly seen in plants such as orchids and many species of milkwee ...

Taxonomy and naming

The genus ''Bromheadia'' was first formally described in 1841 by

John Lindley John Lindley Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (5 February 1799 – 1 November 1865) was an English botanist, gardener and orchidology, orchidologist. Early years Born in Old Catton, Catton, near Norwich, England, John Lindley was one of four c ...

and the description was published in ''

Edwards's Botanical Register ''The Botanical Register'', subsequently known as ''Edwards's Botanical Register'', was an illustrated horticultural magazine that ran from 1815 to 1847. It was started by the botanical illustrator Sydenham Edwards, who had previously illustrat ...

''. The genus name (''Bromheadia'') honours

Edward Bromhead Sir Edward Thomas ffrench Bromhead, 2nd Baronet FRS FRSE (26 March 1789 – 14 March 1855) was a British landowner and mathematician, best remembered as patron of the mathematician and physicist George Green and mentor of George Boole. Life Bor ...

"whose investigations of the natural affinities of plants are well known to systematic Botanists".

Distribution

Orchids in the genus ''Bromheadia'' are found in the region stretching from

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

and

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

south to

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

and east to

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

and the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

, with a few species extending to

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

and

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

Species

The genus is subdivided into two

sections Section, Sectioning, or Sectioned may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Section (music), a complete, but not independent, musical idea * Section (typography), a subdivision, especially of a chapter, in books and documents ** Section sig ...

identified by the clear morphological difference in the shape of the leaves: section ''Bromheadia'' has dorso-ventrally flattened leaves whereas section ''Aporodes'' has laterally-flattened leaves.Kruizinga, J., H.J. van Scheindelen, and E.F. de Vogel. 1997. Revision of the genus ''Bromheadia'' (Orchidaceae). ''Orchid Monographs'', 8: 79-118, figures 29-55, plates 4b-5b. While these two sections represent natural groups with clear morphological support, a 1997

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organisms based on empirical dat ...

study of the relationships within ''Bromheadia'' that used only morphological characters and placed ''

Claderia ''Claderia'' is a genus of flowering plants from the orchid family, Orchidaceae. Only two species are known, both epiphytes native to southeast Asia and New Guinea. *'' Claderia papuana'' Schltr. - New Guinea and possibly the Philippines *'' Cla ...

'' as the

outgroup Outgroup may refer to: * Outgroup (cladistics), an evolutionary-history concept * Outgroup (sociology) In social psychology and sociology, an in-group is a social group to which a person psychologically identifies as being a member. By cont ...

concluded that while section ''Aporodes'' was

monophyletic In biological cladistics for the classification of organisms, monophyly is the condition of a taxonomic grouping being a clade – that is, a grouping of organisms which meets these criteria: # the grouping contains its own most recent co ...

, section ''Bromheadia'' was

paraphyletic Paraphyly is a taxonomic term describing a grouping that consists of the grouping's last common ancestor and some but not all of its descendant lineages. The grouping is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In co ...

. To resolve the conflict, the study's authors suggested that section ''Bromheadia'' either absorb section ''Aporodes'' to make one large monophyletic genus with no infrageneric subdivisions or to divide section ''Bromheadia'' into the three monophyletic groups they identified within it so that the genus would have four sections.Repetur, C.P., P.C. van Welzen, and E.F. de Vogel. 1997. Phylogeny and historical biogeography of the genus ''Bromheadia'' (Orchidaceae). ''

Systematic Botany ''Systematic Botany'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering the study of systematic botany. It is published quarterly by the American Society of Plant Taxonomists. According to the ''Journal Citation Reports'', the journal has a 2010 i ...

'', 22(3): 465-477. However, no further taxonomic work has acted on this suggestion so the genus remains with two natural sections: ;Section ''Bromheadia'' *''

Bromheadia alticola ''Bromheadia'', commonly known as reed orchids, is a genus of about 29 species of orchids in the family Orchidaceae. They are evergreen terrestrial and epiphytic plants with unbranched stems, the leaves arranged in two rows along the flowering st ...

'' Ridl. *'' Bromheadia borneensis'' J.J.Sm. **''B. borneensis'' var. ''borneensis'' **''B. borneensis'' var. ''longiflora'' Scheind. & de Vogel *'' Bromheadia crassiflora'' J.J.Sm. *'' Bromheadia divaricata''

Ames AMES, short Air Ministry Experimental Station, was the name given to the British Air Ministry's radar development team at Bawdsey Manor (afterwards RAF Bawdsey) in the immediate pre-World War II era. The team was forced to move on three occasion ...

& C.Schweinf. *''

Bromheadia finlaysoniana ''Bromheadia finlaysoniana'', commonly known as the pale reed orchid and as ''Bromheadia pulchra'' in Australia, is a plant in the orchid family and is native to areas from Indochina to northern Australia. It is a terrestrial orchid with a toug ...

'' (Lindl.) Miq. *'' Bromheadia pendek'' de Vogel *'' Bromheadia rupestris'' Ridl. ;Section ''Aporodes'' *'' Bromheadia annamensis'' Aver. & Averyanova *''

Bromheadia aporoides ''Bromheadia'', commonly known as reed orchids, is a genus of about 29 species of orchids in the family Orchidaceae. They are evergreen terrestrial and epiphytic plants with unbranched stems, the leaves arranged in two rows along the flowering st ...

'' Rchb.f. *'' Bromheadia benchaii'' J.J.Wood & A.L.Lamb *''

Bromheadia brevifolia ''Bromheadia brevifolia'' is a small epiphytic orchid species in the genus ''Bromheadia''. It is native to the Malay Peninsula, where it is found in the Malaysian states of Pahang and Perak, and on the island of Borneo in the Malaysian states of ...

'' Ridl. *'' Bromheadia cecieliae'' Kruiz. *'' Bromheadia coomansii'' J.J.Sm. ex Kruiz. & de Vogel *''

Bromheadia devogelii ''Bromheadia'', commonly known as reed orchids, is a genus of about 29 species of orchids in the family Orchidaceae. They are evergreen terrestrial and epiphytic plants with unbranched stems, the leaves arranged in two rows along the flowering s ...

'' Kruiz. *'' Bromheadia ensifolia'' J.J.Sm. *'' Bromheadia gracilis'' Kruiz. & de Vogel *'' Bromheadia graminea'' Kruiz. & de Vogel *''

Bromheadia grandiflora ''Bromheadia'', commonly known as reed orchids, is a genus of about 29 species of orchids in the Family (biology), family Orchidaceae. They are evergreen Terrestrial plant, terrestrial and Epiphyte, epiphytic plants with unbranched stems, the lea ...

'' Kruiz. & de Vogel *'' Bromheadia humilis'' Kruiz. & de Vogel *'' Bromheadia latifolia'' Kruiz. & de Vogel *'' Bromheadia lohaniensis'' Kruiz. & de Vogel *'' Bromheadia longifolia'' Kruiz. & de Vogel *'' Bromheadia pungens'' Ridl. *'' Bromheadia robusta'' Kruiz. & de Vogel *'' Bromheadia scirpoidea'' Ridl. *'' Bromheadia srilankensis'' Kruiz. & de Vogel *'' Bromheadia tenuis'' J.J.Sm. *'' Bromheadia truncata'' Seidenf. ;Insufficiently known *'' Bromheadia falcifolia'' Schltr. - all known

herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant biological specimen, specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sh ...

specimens were destroyed during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q1955380 Adrorhizinae Vandeae genera