Bromheadia

Bromheadia
Bromheadia finlaysoniana
1844 illustration
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Monocots
Order: Asparagales
Family: Orchidaceae
Subfamily: Epidendroideae
Tribe: Vandeae
Subtribe: Adrorhizinae
Genus: Bromheadia
Lindl.

Bromheadia, abbreviated as Brom in horticultural trade, is a genus of about 29 species of orchids native to the region stretching from Myanmar and Vietnam south to Java and east to New Guinea and the Philippines, with a few species extending to Sri Lanka and Queensland.[1] It is the only genus in the alliance Bromheadia.

Species

The genus is subdivided into two sections identified by the clear morphological difference in the shape of the leaves: section Bromheadia has dorso-ventrally flattened leaves whereas section Aporodes has laterally-flattened leaves.[2] While these two sections represent natural groups with clear morphological support, a 1997 phylogenetic study of the relationships within Bromheadia that used only morphological characters and placed Claderia as the outgroup concluded that while section Aporodes was monophyletic, section Bromheadia was paraphyletic. To resolve the conflict, the study's authors suggested that section Bromheadia either absorb section Aporodes to make one large monophyletic genus with no infrageneric subdivisions or to divide section Bromheadia into the three monophyletic groups they identified within it so that the genus would have four sections.[3] However, no further taxonomic work has acted on this suggestion so the genus remains with two natural sections:

Section Bromheadia
Section Aporodes
Insufficiently known

References

  1. Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
  2. Kruizinga, J., H.J. van Scheindelen, and E.F. de Vogel. 1997. Revision of the genus Bromheadia (Orchidaceae). Orchid Monographs, 8: 79-118, figures 29-55, plates 4b-5b.
  3. Repetur, C.P., P.C. van Welzen, and E.F. de Vogel. 1997. Phylogeny and historical biogeography of the genus Bromheadia (Orchidaceae). Systematic Botany, 22(3): 465-477.
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