LANKESTERIANA 7: 9-10. 2003. THE ENDEMIC ORCHID GENERA OF THE ANTILLES MARK A. NIR Research Associate Department of Systematics, The New York Botanical Garden Bronx, NY 10458, U.S.A. [email protected] In the Antillean Archipelago there are more than on the mainland, these may be considered palaeo- 600 species of orchids in about 120 genera. Of them endemics. about 90 species belong to 14 endemic genera. The In the D o m i n g o a-N a g e l i e l l a-H o m a l o p e t a l u m Antillean genera are purely a Greater Antilles phe- clade, the van den Bergh & al. paper fully confirms nomenon. Only three species extend into Florida and Dressler’s (1964) transfer of the Mexican P o n e r a- three into the Lesser Antilles (Table1). S c a p h y g l o t t i s-Hartwegia kienastii to D o m i n g o a, which until then consisted of Domingoa nodosa and The epidendroid phylade (van den Bergh et al. Domingoa haematochila from Hispaniola and Mona, 2000) shows the three alliances that concern us here, thus reducing the number of purely Antillanean gen- the N e o c o g n i a u x i a–D i l o m i l i s clade, the D o m i n g o a era. clade and the B r o u g h t o n i a clade. As predicted by The B r o u g h t o n i a clade, consisting of the genera Dressler in 1981, the paper shows quite convincingly B a s i p h y l l a e a, T e t r a m i c r a, Q u i s q u e y a, P s y c h i l i s a n d both the relationship of the Neocogniauxia–Dilomilis Broughtonia, was also predicted by Dressler (1981). clade to the Pleurothallids and its relationship to the At the time there was one Tetramicra with pseudob- progenitors of the Laeliinae. Except for D i l o m i l i s ulbs, while recently the epiphytic T e t r a m i c r a m o n t a n a, the members of this group are rare and m a l p i g h i a r u m was described (Hernández & Díaz highly endangered. The position of the monospecific 2000). At least two new species of T e t r a m i c r a genus T o m z a n o n i a Nir remains unresolved. Since at remain to be published. L a e l i o p s i s and C a t t l e y o p s i s present there are apparently no closely related species have already been previously included in Broughtonia (e.g. Díaz 1996, Nir 2000). Antillanorchis 1 Molecular data on Basiphyllaea have not yet been Basiphyllaea 3 F published. Since the publication of Orchidaceae Braasiella 1 Antillanae (Nir 2000), two additional species were Broughtonia 6 described (Díaz et al. 2001, Ackerman 2001) and two Dendrophylax 8 F more transferred from Bletia. Dilomilis 5 The publication of the paper by Carlsward et al. Domingoa 2 (2002) fully justifies the reunification of the genera Fuertesiella 1 P o l y r r h y z a and P o l y r a d i c i o n with D e n d r o p h y l a x a s Neocogniauxia 2 proposed by Nir (2000), while several species need to Psychilis 15 L.A. be transferred from C a m p y l o c e n t r u m t o Quisqueya 4 Dendrophylax, most notably the monospecific genus Tetramicra 13 L.A. Harrisella. The paper also demonstrated the noncon- Tomzanonia 1 specificity of the Caribbean C a m p y l o c e n t r u m Tolumnia 23 F, L.A. j a m a i c e n s e with the mainland C a m p y l o c e n t r u m micranthum. The New World Angraecinae now com- Table 1. The Antillanean Orchid Genera. Number of prise two genera as proposed by Nir (2000), forming species in each genus (One species each: F = Florida, L.A. = Lesser Antilles). Modified from Nir, Orchidaceae a neotropical clade, sister to the Old World Antillanae, 2000. Angraecinae. 10 LANKESTERIANA Nº 7 The monophylesis of the entirely Caribbean Laeliopsis Lindley (Orchidaceae). Rev. Jardín Bot. Nac. Tolumnia clade was shown by Williams et al. (2001). 7:9-16. A cladogram by Williams and Whitten (2001) fully Díaz Dumas, M.A et al. 2001. Taxonomic changes in Cuban Orchids: Basiphyllaea. Harvard Pap. Bot. 5: 487- justifies the incorporation of the segregates 488. H i s p a n i e l l a, J a m a i c e l l a, O l g a s i s (Nir 1994), Dressler, R. L. 1964. Nomenclatural notes on the G u d r u n i a (Nir 2000), and B r a a s i e l l a ( A c k e r m a n Orchidaceae 2. Taxon 13: 245-247. 2001) into Tolumnia Braem. Dressler, R. L. 1981.The Orchids: Natural History and Classification. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass. Hernándéz, J. A & M. A Díaz. 2000. A New Species of LITERATURE CITED T e t r a m i c r a (Orchidaceae). Harvard Pap. Bot. 5: 189- Ackerman, J.D. 2001. Notes on the Caribbean Orchid 192. Flora III. Lindleyana 16: 13-16. Nir, M. A. 1994. Taxonomic changes in Caribbean Ackerman, J.D. 1997. The Orchid flora of the Caribbean. Orchids. Lindleyana 9:147-151. Lindleyana 12: 149-152. Nir, M. A. 2000. Orchidaceae Antillanae. Dag Media. Carlsward, B.S. et al. 2002. Molecular phylogenetics of Van den Bergh, C. et al. 2000. A Phylogenetic analysis of Neotropical leafless Angraecinae (Orchidaceae): Laeliinae. Lindleyana 15: 96-114. Reevaluation of generic concepts. Int. J. Plant Sci. 164: Williams, N. H et al. 2001. Molecular Systematics of the 43-51. Oncidiinae. Lindleyana 16:113-139. Díaz Dumas, M.A. 1996. Revisión de los géneros anti- Williams, N. H. & W. M. Whitten. 2001. Checking an llanos B r o u g h t o n i a R. Brown, C a t t l e y o p s i s Lemaire y orchid hybrid background. Orchids 70: 1056-1061. Mark A. Nir was born 1935 in Slovakia. He is a graduate of the Rupin Agricultural College, and studied biology and medicine in Austria and Israel. Associate Professor Emeritus of Medicine (Dermatology), NY College of Medicine; Research Associate, Department of Systematics, The New York Botanical Garden. .