2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Cyrtopodium (lat. Cyrtopodium) - a genus of herbaceous perennial plants, ranked by botanists in the Orchid family (Latin Orchidaceae). Plants of the genus are distinguished by their democratic character, expressed in a wide choice of conditions for their life. They can be found in trees as epiphytes; on stony mountain slopes, being lithophytes; or live, like most plants on the planet, on earth.
What's in your name
The Latin name for the genus "Cyrtopodium", as is often the case when botanists choose names for plants, is based on two Greek words: "kyrtos" meaning "convex" and "podion" meaning "legs." The reason for such a name could be two parts of a plant, a flower column, or a pseudobulb, the shape of which these two words fit.
The type species of the genus is "Cyrtopodium andersonii", first described in 1812 by an English botanist, Aylmer Bourke Lambert (02.02.1761 - 10.01.1842), who mainly studied conifers, but also described other new plants. True, Lambert attributed the plant to the genus Cymbidium (Latin Cymbidium), calling it "Cymbidium andersonii". In 1813, the Scottish botanist Robert Brown (in Russia they say, Brown. Robert Brown, 21.12.1773 - 10.06.1857) based on this species created a new genus of orchids "Cyrtopodium".
In the literature on floriculture, you can find not the full name of the genus, but only its abbreviation of four letters - "Cyrt".
Description
Despite the fact that the plants of the genus "Cyrtopodium" belong to the sympodial type of structure of the shoot, which prefers to grow in width rather than in height, among the species of the genus there are plants of both medium and very large sizes.
Pseudobulbs of plants are often spindle-shaped and arranged in tight picturesque groups, as in the following photo:
The sizes of the leaves located in the upper part of the pseudobulbs depend on the external conditions and the type of plant. The width of the oblong-elliptical leaves varies from 1 to 10 centimeters, and their length is from 10 to 100, or even more, centimeters. Cyrtopodium linearifolium has the most modest leaf sizes, and Cyrtopodium paludicolum flaunts meter-long leaves. Leaves, as a rule, are vaginal, membranous and quite often corrugated, with a leaf blade with a sharp end.
At the base of the pseudobulbs, strong peduncles are born, bearing multi-flowered paniculate or racemose inflorescences. In the species "Cyrtopodium paludicolum", peduncles growing up to the same marks do not lag behind the meter-long leaves.
Flower petals, like sepals, love freedom and spread out in different directions, decorating the plant with their bright color, more often yellow, brown or reddish, shaded by spots of a darker color. The three-bladed lip, as is always the case with orchids, sets the main tone for the entire unique floral creation.
Varieties
In the genus "Cyrtopodium" there are more than 40 (forty) plant species with different modes of existence. Here are a few of them:
* "Cyrtopodium andersonii" - type species
* "Cyrtopodium paludicolum" - large leaves and peduncles
* "Cyrtopodium linearifolium"
* "Cyrtopodium cristatum" - decorated with a comb:
* "Cyrtopodium punctatum".
Usage
In natural conditions, plants of the genus "Cyrtopodium" grow on two continents of America, and the largest number of species have chosen for themselves the territory of Brazil, rich in tropical forests.
A number of species of the genus Cyrtopodium are popular in cultivation.
All species of this genus are protected by the CITES Convention, which declares that trade in wild plants should not threaten their life on Earth. The only pity is that not all people are guided by these rules, when monetary gain is placed above life on the planet.
