''Ceratocentron'' is a critically endangered

monotypic genus In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispe ...

plant Plants are the eukaryotes that form the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae; they are predominantly Photosynthesis, photosynthetic. This means that they obtain their energy from sunlight, using chloroplasts derived from endosymbiosis with c ...

s in the family

Orchidaceae Orchids are plants that belong to the family (biology), family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Orchids are cosmopolitan distribution, cosmopolitan plants that ...

. It sole known species, ''Ceratocentron fesselii'', is found at high altitudes from

Nueva Vizcaya Nueva Vizcaya, officially the Province of Nueva Vizcaya (; ; Pangasinan: ''Luyag/Probinsia na Nueva Vizcaya''; ), is a landlocked province in the Philippines located in the Cagayan Valley region in Luzon. Its capital and largest town is Bayo ...

and

Nueva Ecija Nueva Ecija, officially the Province of Nueva Ecija ( ; ; ; ), is a landlocked province in the Philippines located in the Central Luzon region. Its capital is the city of Palayan, while Cabanatuan, its former capital, is the largest Local gove ...

to the Cordillera Mountain ranges on

Luzon Luzon ( , ) is the largest and most populous List of islands in the Philippines, island in the Philippines. Located in the northern portion of the List of islands of the Philippines, Philippine archipelago, it is the economic and political ce ...

island in 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 ...

. The holotype was discovered in northern

. The species is rare in the wild, and remained unknown to science until 1989.Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
/ref>Senghas, Karlheinz. 1989. Die Orchideen Hamburg 40: 90 It is critically endangered due to habitat degradation and collecting. According to the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

, over-collecting to keep up with demand in the international orchid trade has led to its decline.

References

* (Eds) (2014) Genera Orchidacearum Volume 6: Epidendroideae (Part 3); page 148 ff., Oxford: Oxford University Press.

External links

IOSPE orchid photos
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20140826115116/http://www.arkive.org/orchid/ceratocentron-fesselii/ ARKivebr>The Beauty of Orchids & Flowers, ''Ceratocentron fesselii'' Senghas 1989
Monotypic Epidendroideae genera Vandeae genera Aeridinae Endemic orchids of the Philippines Flora of Luzon Endangered plants Species that are or were threatened by the pet trade Species that are or were threatened by logging Species that are or were threatened by slash-and-burn Species that are or were threatened by urbanization Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxa named by Karlheinz Senghas {{Vandeae-stub