2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Leader (lat. Habenaria) - a numerous genus of herbaceous perennial plants living on the ground, less often epiphytic ones, belonging to the Orchid family (Latin Orchidaceae). Plants of this genus are commonly referred to as "swamp orchids". They are found on all continents of the planet, excluding Antarctica, and they grow in both tropical and temperate zones. Some species of the genus were met by humans only once or twice, and therefore their number on Earth is known to botanists literally by the piece. Among the orchids of the genus Povodnik there are plants with unique elegant flowers, the shape of which resembles graceful white-winged birds.
What's in your name
The Latin name of the genus "Habenaria" is translated into Russian by the words: "strip, leash, bridle". The reason for this name is the shape of the flower petals, which in most species looks like narrow long stripes, and the flower lip of some species is a commonwealth of the same narrow and long lobes.
So, the Russian name of the genus "Povodnik" is a figurative translation of the Latin name, which carries the same semantic load as the official Latin name.
Description
Orchids of the genus Lead can live in the tropics, being epiphytic plants, but more often they prefer not to get off the ground, and therefore have acquired underground nodules and roots that provide the aboveground part of the plant with moisture and nutrients. Root tubers come in a variety of sizes, from small to relatively large. It is the tubers that guarantee the long-term existence of this genus of orchids. The aboveground part of the plants dies after fruiting.
A new vertical stem appears on the surface every spring, the length of which varies from 20 to 80 centimeters. Leaves, ovate or lanceolate, may be located along the stem, or the stem may be bare. The base of the stem is surrounded by a basal rosette formed by lanceolate pointed leaves. It happens that flat basal leaves spread over the earth's surface.
The end of the stem is crowned with inflorescences, which in different species can differ in length (short or long), shape (spike or racemose), size of flowers (small or large), color of the flower corolla (mainly white, green, yellow, white-green, yellow -green, and, extremely rarely, are bright red).
A wide and short column of a flower, often with a complex structure, with long organs sticking out of it, is protected by a “veil” of petals and a central sepal. Sepals are lateral protruding or curved. The lip can be solid, but more often it is composed of three lobes.
Varieties
Botanists count up to a thousand varieties of plants of the Povodnik genus. Let's list a few of them:
* Lead jellyfish (lat. Habenaria medusa) - an orchid with surprisingly thin and long white petals, turning the flower into a kind of sea jellyfish, was described by the German botanist, Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig Kraenzlin (1847-07-25 - 1937-03-09).
* Rodoheil's guide (lat. Habenaria rhodocheila) - an orchid with scarlet flowers, described by a British diplomat who, in his spare time, studied the flora, Henry Fletcher Hance (1827-08-04 - 1886-06-22).
* Leader of Roxburgh (lat. Habenaria roxburghii) - an orchid with an inflorescence of white flowers, described by the American botanist Dan Henry Nicolson (1933-09-05 - 2016-06-02).
* Radiator (lat. Habenaria radiata) - grows in the wild in our country, Korea, China and Japan. Widely known as the White Egret Flower. The plant should not be confused with an orchid from the genus Lubka (lat. Platanthera) called "Platanthera praeclara", growing in North America, whose flowers are decorated with white fringes. In the photo below: on the left "Habenaria radiata", on the right "Platanthera praeclara":
