''Phaius tankervilleae'', commonly known as the greater swamp-orchid, swamp lily, swamp orchid, nun's-hood orchid, nun's orchid, veiled orchid, Lady Tankerville's swamp orchid or 鹤顶兰 (he ding lan), is a species of orchid native to areas from Asia to islands in the Pacific Ocean. It has large, pleated leaves and tall flowering stems bearing up to twenty five white, brown, mauve and yellow flowers. It was named for

Lady Tankerville Emma Bennet, Countess of Tankerville (1752 – 20 November 1836) born Emma Colebrooke was a British heiress, art patron and botanist. Lady Tankerville's collection of botanical illustrations are held at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. '' Phaius ...

who was the first person to make the orchid flower successfully in England. It was the first tropical orchid to flower in England.

Description

''Phaius tankervilleae'' is an

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 ...

herb Herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnishing food, for medicinal purposes, or for fragrances. Culinary use typically distingu ...

that has cone shaped or more or less spherical

pseudobulb In botany, a pseudobulb is a storage organ found in many epiphytic and terrestrial sympodial orchids. It is derived from a thickening of the part of a stem between leaf nodes and may be composed of just one internode or several, termed ''heter ...

s mostly long and wide. Between two and eight pleated linear to lance-shaped leaves long and wide develop from the pseudobulb. Between ten and twenty five

resupinate Resupination is derived from the Latin word ''resupinus'', meaning "bent back with the face upward" or "on the back". "Resupination" is the noun form of the adjective "resupine" which means "being upside-down, supine or facing upward". The word " ...

flowers wide are borne on a flowering stem tall. The flowers are whitish on the outside and reddish brown inside. 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 petals are oblong to lance-shaped, long and wide. The labellum is pink or reddish with a white tip and white stripes inside, long and wide with three lobes. The middle lobe is more or less tube-shaped and the side lobes have wavy or crinkled edges. There is a whitish yellow spur long near the base of the labellum and a narrow raised

callus A callus (: calluses) is an area of thickened and sometimes hardened skin that forms as a response to repeated friction, pressure, or other irritation. Since repeated contact is required, calluses are most often found on the feet and hands, b ...

in its centre. Flowering occurs from September to November in Australia and from March to June in Asia.

Taxonomy and naming

In 1778, John Fothergill sent specimens of this orchid back from China to England and in 1788, after one had flowered,

Joseph Banks Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, (19 June 1820) was an English Natural history, naturalist, botanist, and patron of the natural sciences. Banks made his name on the European and American voyages of scientific exploration, 1766 natural-history ...

formally described the species, giving it the name ''Limodorum tankervilleae''. In 1859,

Carl Ludwig Blume Charles Ludwig de Blume or Karl Ludwig von Blume (9 June 1796 – 3 February 1862) was a German-Dutch botanist and entomologist who spent most of his professional life in the Netherlands and the Dutch East Indies. As deputy director of agricul ...

changed the name to ''Phaius tankervilleae''. The

specific epithet In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...

(''tankervilleae'') honours Lady Emma Tankerville, as the orchid had flowered in her greenhouse at

Walton-on-Thames Walton-on-Thames, known locally as Walton, is a market town on the bank (geography), south bank of the River Thames, Thames in northwest Surrey, England. It is in the Borough of Elmbridge, about southwest of central London. Walton forms part ...

near London.Gifts from the Gardens of China
By Jane Kilpatrick, , accessed 10 June 2008 It was the first tropical orchid to flower in England. Other spellings of the specific epithet are sometimes used. When

Charles Louis L'Héritier de Brutelle Charles Louis L'Héritier de Brutelle (; 15 June 1746 – 18 August 1800) was an 18th-century French botanist and civil servant. Born into an affluent upper-class Parisian family, connections with the French Royal Court secured him the position ...

published his book ''Sertum Anglicum'' and cited Joseph Banks' name for this species, he Latinised it to ''Limodorum tancarvilleae''. As a result, some authorities, including the

Australian Plant Census The Australian Plant Census (APC) provides an online interface to currently accepted, published, scientific names of the vascular flora of Australia, as one of the output interfaces of the national government Integrated Biodiversity Information Sys ...

, list the species as ''Phaius tancervilleae''. The spellings ''P. tankervilliae'' and ''P. tankarvilliae'' have also been used. In 2017, Judi Stone and

Phillip James Cribb Phillip may refer to: * Phillip (Bob the Builder), Bob the Builder's character * Phillip (character), Wallace & Gromit's character * Phillip (Saliba), Lebanese Orthodox prelate * Phillip (given name), given name * Phillip (surname), surname * Phill ...

published a

monograph A monograph is generally a long-form work on one (usually scholarly) subject, or one aspect of a subject, typically created by a single author or artist (or, sometimes, by two or more authors). Traditionally it is in written form and published a ...

entitled ''Lady Tankerville's Legacy - A Historical and Monographic Review of Phaius and Gastrorchis'', in which they described six varieties of ''Phaius tankervilleae'': * ''Phaius tankervilleae'' var. ''antoninae'' ( P.Balzer) J.V.Stone & P.J.Cribb (2017) * ''Phaius tankervilleae'' var. ''australis'' (

F.Muell. Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, (; 30 June 1825 – 10 October 1896) was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist. He was appointed government botanist for the then colony of Victoria (state), Vic ...

) J.V.Stone & P.J.Cribb (2017) * ''Phaius tankervilleae'' var. ''baolocensis'' ( Duy, Tao Chen & D.X.Zhang) J.V.Stone & P.J.Cribb (2017) * ''Phaius tankervilleae'' var. ''bernaysii'' (F.Muell. ex Rchb.f.) J.V.Stone & P.J.Cribb (2017) * ''Phaius tankervilleae'' var. ''devogelii'' J.V.Stone & P.J.Cribb (2017) * ''Phaius tankervilleae'' var. ''tankervilleae''

Distribution and habitat

''Phaius tankervilleae'' grows in swampy forest or grassland. It is found in the

Indian Subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographic region of Asia below the Himalayas which projects into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal to the east and the Arabian Sea to the west. It is now divided between Bangladesh, India, and Pakista ...

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 ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

, 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 ...

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 ...

and certain islands of the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the cont ...

. It is also naturalised in

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

, the

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

and

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

.Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families, ''Phaius tankervilleae'' (Banks) Blume
/ref> In

it is found as ''P. tankervilleae'' var. ''australis'' as far south as

Yamba, New South Wales Yamba is a town in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Australia, located at the mouth of the Clarence River. The town economy is strongly based on fishing and tourism, but has a diverse range of influences, due to the 'Sea Change' ...

. and further north in tropical

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 ...

. While rare in parts of its native habitat, it is present in other parts of the world as a naturalised species, including

USFWS
''Cyanea remyi'' Five-year Review''.
August 2010. pg 4. and

.Liu, H. and R. Pemberton. (2010)
Pollination of an invasive orchid, ''Cyrtopodium polyphyllum'' (Orchidaceae), by and invasive oil-collecting bee, ''Centris nitida'', in southern Florida.
''Botany'' 88 290-95.

Conservation status

''Phaius tankervilleae'' var. ''australis'', as ''Phaius australis'', is listed as

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching, inv ...

with possible extinction within the country. It is threatened by trampling by stock, and by illegal collecting, weeds and drainage of its habitat.

Use in horticulture

Identification of the genus ''Phaius'' is a particularly challenging and difficult task. Many plants are incorrectly labeled in nurseries or misidentified by professionals and authors. An easily grown plant in cultivation. It prefers semi shade.

Propagation Propagation can refer to: *Chain propagation in a chemical reaction mechanism *Crack propagation, the growth of a crack during the fracture of materials *Propaganda, non-objective information used to further an agenda *Reproduction, and other forms ...

is achieved from seed or by the cutting of the base clump of the plant. The large flowers occur in spring. Also, flower stem node propagation brings success. Where after flowering, the scape is either laid whole or in sections on a medium such as ''

Sphagnum ''Sphagnum'' is a genus of approximately 380 accepted species of mosses, commonly known as sphagnum moss, also bog moss and quacker moss (although that term is also sometimes used for peat). Accumulations of ''Sphagnum'' can store water, since ...

'' moss or stood in a container of water. Plantlets emerge from the nodes, and when large enough are removed and potted up.

Gallery

File:Phaius tankervilleae (as Bletia tankervilleae) - Curtis' 44 pl. 1924 (1817).jpg, Illustration from Curtis Botanical Magazine, 1924 File:Orchidaceae - Phaius tancarvilleae.JPG, Inflorescence of ''Phaius tankervilleae'' File:Orchidaceae - Phaius tancarvilleae-1.JPG, Flowers of ''Phaius tankervilleae'' File:Phaius tancarvilleae1.jpg, Flowers of ''Phaius tankervilleae'' File:Phaius tancarvilleae2.jpg, Flowers of ''Phaius tankervilleae''

References

External links

*
Flora 33 - Phaius Tankervilleae (Phaius tancarvilleae)

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q3011916, from2=Q21310096, from3=Q24853016 Phaius, tankervilleae Orchids of Asia Orchids of Oceania Orchids of Malaya Orchids of China Orchids of India Orchids of Indonesia Orchids of Malaysia Orchids of New South Wales Orchids of Queensland Orchids of New Guinea