2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Belt-petal (Latin Himantoglossum) - a genus of herbaceous perennial plants belonging to the Orchid family (Latin Orchidaceae). Orchids of this genus chose the land as their place of residence, changing the preference of the many species of orchids living on tropical trees. Large racemose inflorescences of plants look like disheveled heads due to the middle lobe of the flower lip, which has the shape of a long and thin strap, fluttering under the gusts of the wind, like ribbons on a sailor's peakless cap.
What's in your name
The genus owes its name to a flower petal called a "lip", the shape of which is knocked out of the usual shape of the lips of orchids. The middle part of the three-lobed lip, long and thin, looks more like a strap than a flower petal, giving the plant a shaggy appearance. This feature of the structure of the flower lip of the orchid gave a reason for botanists to use the Greek words: "himas" and "glossa", the meaning of which in Russian sounds like "belt" and "tongue", to assign the Latin name "Himantoglossum" to the genus of orchids.
Description
The guarantee of perenniality of plants of the genus Remnepestnik is whole underground tubers, because this orchid descended from the usual heights of the tropical forest and settled on the ground. The tubers are simple, ellipsoidal.
A perennial plant rises above the ground to a height of 50 to 75 centimeters. First, from the formed tuber, which has accumulated a supply of nutrients, a basal rosette of rounded-oblong leaves is born on the surface of the earth in autumn, from which a bare or leafy powerful peduncle stem appears in the spring. During the cold period, some of the leaves are damaged by frost, causing some harm to the development of the plant.
The decoration of the peduncle is a racemose large inflorescence, long and loose, formed by whitish-greenish flowers. The indispensable part of the perianth of orchids, called "lip" or "labellum", is divided into three parts, of which the middle part is the longest, giving the inflorescence a disheveled appearance. The tip of this middle ribbon-like blade is bifurcated, notched, or has a slight indentation, resembling the ribbon of a sailor's peakless cap. An indispensable attribute of an orchid flower is a straight column.
Varieties
The genus Bellepestnik cannot boast of a large number of species. According to some reports, there are six species in its ranks today, including:
* Goat strap-petal (Latin Himantoglossum caprinum) - a perennial plant, the aerial part of which lives only one season, managing to give life to seeds, as a rule, due to flowers located in the lower part of a spike-shaped rare inflorescence. The unusual shape of the flowers is an attractive point for the popularity of the plant. Perenniality is supported by stem-root tuberoids, which accumulate a supply of nutrients for plant development.
* Beautiful belt-petal (Latin Himantoglossum formosum) - I chose the Eastern Caucasus from all places on the planet. The plant is rare, listed in the Red Book of our country. The plant is based on underground tubers. It attracts attention with its multi-flowered loose inflorescence, has oblong-lanceolate leaves.
* Goat's belt-petal (Latin Himantoglossum hircinum) - perennial with underground tubers, elliptical leaves with a rounded end and a multi-flowered loose inflorescence. The unpleasant smell of flowers gave rise to the specific epithet "hircinum", which is translated from the Latin word for "goat".
* Adriatic belt-petal (Latin Himantoglossum adriaticum) - a perennial plant with underground tubers, falling lanceolate or oblong leaves, multi-flowered inflorescences of pleasantly smelling flowers of a funny and amazing shape.
* Strap-petal comperia (Latin Himantoglossum comperianum) - this species is distinguished by some botanists as an independent monotypic genus, which has only one type of orchid.
