Goodbye Doritaenopsis : a Nomenclatural Farewell
Wesley E . Higgins
A
s of December 20 , 2012 the nothogenus Doritaenopsis With has gone away . Julian Shaw , the orchid hybrid registrar , announced that all previous x Doritaenopsis and Doritis hybrids had been transferred to Phalaenopsis . All registration applications for x Doritaenopsis hybrids will now be registered as Phalaenopsis from today onwards . Additionally , x Doritaenopsis will no longer be available in the on-line search of the orchid registration database .
Why has this change occurred ; what happened ? The short answer is that the genus Doritis has become a Phalaenopsis . When John Lindley ( 1833 ) described the genus Doritis , he stated the flowers had two bi-lobed pollinia . Others have interpreted this to be four pollinia . A century later , Johannes Jacobus Smith ( 1933 ) placed Doritis into Phalaenopsis in his treatment of the genus . Herman R . Sweet ( 1980 ) then separated Doritis from Phalaenopsis because of its pollinia number , lip structure and adaptations to a terrestrial habitat . This was followed by Christenson ( 2001 ) returning Doritis to Phalaenopsis ( along with Kingidium which also have four pollinia ) in his monograph .
After 173 years of confusion , the systematics of the genus Phalaenopsis was examined by C . C . Tsai , S . C . Huang and C . H . Chou ( 2006 ) using DNA sequences . These types of studies reveal the evolutionary history of species in the form of a phylogenetic tree . Modern taxonomists feel that the guiding principal of applying names to the tree is that the clades should form natural groups that consist of a common ancestor and all its descendants ( monophyletic ). The subjective nature of classification is whether a clade is named a genus , a subgenus , a section , etc . The conclusion of this molecular study was that the genera Doritis and Kingidium can be treated as part of the genus Phalaenopsis .
the confirmation of the position of Doritis ( in the middle of Phalaenopsis ) the World Checklist of Orchidaceae ( Govaerts 2013 ) now lists Doritis as a synonym of Phalaenopsis . This change created a problem with the nothogenus Doritaenopsis for the orchid hybrid registrar . Since Doritis is just another name for Phalaenopsis , the nothogenus becomes superfluous . Thus the announcement by Shaw that Doritaenopsis hybrids had been transferred to Phalaenopsis .
References Christenson , E . A . 2001 . Phalaenopsis : A Monograph . Timber Press , Portland , OR .
Govaerts , R ., Compiler , P . Bernet ( Réunion , 2010 ), K . Kratochvil ( Czech Rep ., 2009 ), G . Gerlach ( M , 2009 ), G . Carr ( 2009 , Catasetum ), P . Alrich ( 2009 ), A . M . Pridgeon ( U . K ., 2008 ), J . Pfahl ( Florida , 2006 ), M . A . Campacci ( Brazil , 2005 ), D . Holland Baptista ( Brazil , 2005 ), H . Tigges ( Germany , 2005 ), J . Shaw ( RHS , 2005 ), P . Cribb ( K , 2003 ), A . George ( K , 2003 ), K . Kreuz ( 2004 , Europe ), J . Wood ( K , 2003 , Europe ), Reviewers . 2013 . World Checklist of Orchidaceae . Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens , Kew . Published on the Internet ; http :// apps . kew . org / wcsp / Retrieved 1 / 15 / 2013 .
Lindley , J . 1833 . Doritis . Gen . Sp . Orchid . Pl .: 178 .
Smith , J . J . 1933 . Phalaenopsis Bl ., Repert . Spec . Nov . Regni Veg ., 32 : 364-367 .
Sweet , H . R . 1980 . The genus Phalaenopsis . The Orchid Digest ,
Pomona , CA .
Tsai , C . C ., S . C .
Huang and C . H . Chou . 2006 . Molecular phylogeny of Phalaenopsis Blume ( Orchidaceae ) based on the internal transcribed spacer of the nuclear ribosomal DNA . Pl . Syst . Evol ., 256 : 1 – 16 .
Doritaenopsis Sinica Cherry
12 Phalaenopsis | First Quarter | Volume 23 | 2013