''Ponthieva'' is a genus in the orchid 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 ...

), commonly known as the shadow witch. They are named after

Henry de Ponthieu Henry de Ponthieu (14 February 1731 – 10 December 1808) was a London merchant of Huguenot ancestry who collected fish and plant specimens from the West Indies for botanist Joseph Banks. The orchid genus ''Ponthieva'' was named by botanist Robert B ...

, an English merchant of

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , ; ) are a Religious denomination, religious group of French people, French Protestants who held to the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, ...

ancestry who sent West Indian plant collections to Sir

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 ...

in 1778. ''Ponthieva'' is widely distributed in the southeastern

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, 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

Latin America Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...

from

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

.Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
/ref>Flora of North America v 26 p 547, ''Ponthieva'' R. Brown, Hortus Kew. 5: 199. 1813.
/ref>Carnevali F., G., J. L. Tapia-Muñoz, R. Jiménez-Machorro, L. Sánchez-Saldaña, L. Ibarra-González, I. M. Ramírez & M. P. Gómez. 2001. Notes on the flora of the Yucatan Peninsula II: a synopsis of the orchid flora of the Mexican Yucatan Peninsula and a tentative checklist of the Orchidaceae of the Yucatan Peninsula biotic province. Harvard Papers in Botany 5(2): 383–466. They are mainly terrestrial plants with

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 ...

growth, but some are

epiphyte 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 ...

s. Their fibrous root show long and soft hairs. Some of the branches are thickened. The simple

stem Stem or STEM most commonly refers to: * Plant stem, a structural axis of a vascular plant * Stem group * Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics Stem or STEM can also refer to: Language and writing * Word stem, part of a word respon ...

grows from

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 ...

s and carries thin, basal

leaves A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, stem, ...

with a slight to a somewhat longer stalk. The few to many, erect

flower Flowers, also known as blooms and blossoms, are the reproductive structures of flowering plants ( angiosperms). Typically, they are structured in four circular levels, called whorls, around the end of a stalk. These whorls include: calyx, m ...

s grow on bracteate peduncles in a terminal

raceme A raceme () or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate growth, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are ...

. Their dorsal

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'' ...

is slightly joined to the

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 at the apex. The petals are free or sometimes fused to lower flanks of the

column A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member ...

. The lateral sepals are distinct or joined. The clawed

lip The lips are a horizontal pair of soft appendages attached to the jaws and are the most visible part of the mouth of many animals, including humans. Mammal lips are soft, movable and serve to facilitate the ingestion of food (e.g. sucklin ...

is fused to the base of the short

. This is semiterete, i.e. in the form of a cylinder, rounded on one side and flat on the other. It is slightly winged towards the pointed apex. There are four, yellow, club-shaped

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 ...

that are joined in pairs.

Species

Species accepted as of June 2014: # '' Ponthieva andicola'' Rchb.f. (1876) (Ecuador) # '' Ponthieva appendiculata'' Schltr. (1915) (Ecuador) # '' Ponthieva bicornuta'' C.Schweinf. (1951) (Peru) # '' Ponthieva brenesii'' Schltr. (1923) (Costa Rica, Panama) # '' Ponthieva brittoniae'' Ames (1910) : Britton's Shadow Witch (Florida, Bahamas, Cuba) # '' Ponthieva campestris'' (Liebm.) Garay (1995) (Mexico) # '' Ponthieva collantesii'' D.E.Benn. & Christenson (1998) (Peru) # '' Ponthieva cornuta'' Rchb.f. (1876) (Bolivia) # '' Ponthieva curvilabia'' Garay (1978) (Ecuador) # ''

Ponthieva cuyujana ''Ponthieva'' is a genus in the orchid family (Orchidaceae), commonly known as the shadow witch. They are named after Henry de Ponthieu, an English merchant of Huguenot ancestry who sent West Indian plant collections to Sir Joseph Banks in 1778. ...

'' Dodson & Hirtz (1989) (Ecuador) # '' Ponthieva diptera'' Linden & Rchb.f. (1854) : Two-winged Ponthieva (Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, Guyana, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru) # '' Ponthieva disema'' Schltr. (1915) (Ecuador) # '' Ponthieva dunstervillei'' Foldats (1968) (Venezuela) # '' Ponthieva elegans'' (Kraenzl.) Schltr. (1912) (Bolivia) # '' Ponthieva ephippium'' Rchb.f. (1857) (Mexico, Guatemala) # '' Ponthieva fertilis'' (F.Lehm. & Kraenzl.) Salazar (2009) (Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru) # '' Ponthieva formosa'' Schltr. (1923) (Mexico, Central America) # '' Ponthieva garayana'' Dodson & R.Vásquez (1989) (Bolivia) # '' Ponthieva gimana'' Dodson (2003) (Ecuador) # '' Ponthieva gracilis'' Renz (1948) (Colombia) # '' Ponthieva hameri'' Dressler (1998) (El Salvador) # '' Ponthieva hassleri'' Schltr. (1920) (Paraguay) # '' Ponthieva hildae'' R.González & Soltero (1991) (Mexico) # '' Ponthieva inaudita'' Rchb.f. (1876) : Unheard Ponthieva (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru) # '' Ponthieva insularis'' Dressler (2005) (Galapagos Islands) # '' Ponthieva keraia'' Garay & Dunst. (1976) (Venezuela, Ecuador) # '' Ponthieva lilacina'' C.Schweinf. (1941) (Peru) # '' Ponthieva maculata'' Lindl. (1845) : Spotted Ponthieva (Venezuela, Ecuador) # '' Ponthieva mandonii'' Rchb.f. (1878) (Peru to NW Argentina) # '' Ponthieva mexicana'' (A.Rich. & Galeotti) Salazar (2009) (Mexico, Guatemala) # '' Ponthieva microglossa'' Schltr. (1920) (Colombia) # '' Ponthieva nigricans'' Schltr. (1917) (Ecuador) # '' Ponthieva oligoneura'' Schltr. (1921) (Peru) # '' Ponthieva ovatilabia'' C.Schweinf. (1961) (Venezuela, Guyana) # '' Ponthieva parvilabris'' (Lindl.) Rchb.f. (1878) : Small-lipped Ponthieva (Venezuela, Ecuador) # '' Ponthieva parvula'' Schltr. (1912) (Mexico, Guatemala) # '' Ponthieva pauciflora'' (Sw.) Fawc. & Rendle (1910) (Caribbean) # '' Ponthieva petiolata'' Lindl., Bot. Reg. 9: t. 760 (1824) (Lesser Antiles) # '' Ponthieva phaenoleuca'' (Barb.Rodr.) Cogn. in C.F.P.von Martius & auct. suc. (eds.) (1895) (Brazil) # '' Ponthieva pilosissima'' (Senghas) Dodson (1996) : Hairy Ponthieva (Ecuador) # '' Ponthieva pseudoracemosa'' Garay (1978) (Ecuador, Peru) # '' Ponthieva pubescens'' (C.Presl) C.Schweinf. (1970) (Ecuador, Peru, Brazil) # '' Ponthieva pulchella'' Schltr. (1918) (Mexico, Guatemala) # '' Ponthieva racemosa'' (Walter) C.Mohr : Hairy Shadow Witch, Racemose Ponthieva (SE USA, Mexico, tropical America) # '' Ponthieva rinconii'' Salazar (2005) (Mexico) # '' Ponthieva rostrata'' Lindl. (1845) (Ecuador, Peru) # '' Ponthieva schaffneri'' (Rchb.f.) E.W.Greenw. (1990) (Mexico, Guatemala) # '' Ponthieva similis'' C.Schweinf. (1941) (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru) # '' Ponthieva sprucei'' Cogn. in C.F.P.von Martius & auct. suc. (eds.) (1895) (Peru) # '' Ponthieva sylvicola'' Rchb.f. (1876) (Ecuador) # '' Ponthieva triloba'' Schltr. (1910) : Three-lobed Lip Ponthieva (Mexico, El Salvador) # '' Ponthieva trilobata'' (L.O.Williams) L.O.Williams (1972) (Mexico, Guatemala) # '' Ponthieva tuerckheimii'' Schltr. (1906) (Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Panama) # '' Ponthieva tunguraguae'' Garay (1978) (Ecuador) # '' Ponthieva unguiculata'' Ames & C.Schweinf. (1925) (Bolivia) # '' Ponthieva vasquezii'' Dodson (1989) (Bolivia) # '' Ponthieva ventricosa'' (Griseb.) Fawc. & Rendle (1910) : Smooth Shadow Witch (Caribbean) # '' Ponthieva venusta'' Schltr. (1921) (Ecuador, Peru) # '' Ponthieva villosa'' Lindl. in G.Bentham (1845) (Ecuador, Peru) # '' Ponthieva viridilimbata'' Dressler (2005) (Ecuador) # '' Ponthieva weberbaueri'' Schltr. (1921) (Peru)

References

External links

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q137032 Cranichideae genera