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An accidental discovery by an Assam forest officer has given India one of its smallest orchids in terms of size and bloom duration to be botanically recorded. Lecanorchis taiwaniana is a type of parasite known as myco-heterotroph, which is characterized by having abandoned photosynthesis, and was recently published in the Japanese Journal of Botany as a “new record for the flora in India.”
The orchid, which had previously been discovered in Japan, Taiwan, and Laos, grew to a maximum height of 40 cm and bloomed for five to six days. Aside from that, the forest officer has made a few additional botanical findings.
Orchids in Assam
As many as 290 orchid species have been identified in Assam. More than hundreds of eye-catching and colorful wild orchids grow throughout the year in the tropical wet evergreen woods of Lakhimpur district and its surrounding foothills of Arunachal Pradesh. They are mostly epiphytes. Vanilla pilifera and Galeola altissima are climbers, while Goodyera procera and Spiranthis sinesis are aquatic plants. Orchids thrive in evergreen and semi-evergreen forests, as well as damp deciduous forests to some extent.
Lecanorchis
The presence of a calyculus, a cup-like structure between the base of the perianth and the apex of the ovary, is a distinguishing feature of the Lecanorchis species. The genus Lecanorchis contains approximately thirty species and/or variations that can be found in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Japan, and New Guinea. Due to close morphological similarities and brief flowering periods, precise identification of Lecanorchis species is often difficult.
Lecanorchis are leafless myco-heterotrophs that live on land (formerly called saprophytes).
The orchid, which had previously been discovered in Japan, Taiwan, and Laos, grew to a maximum height of 40 cm and bloomed for five to six days.
They include around 30 species from China, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, New Guinea, the Pacific Islands, the Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam, which are dispersed throughout a broad geographic range.
They bear dull brown, purple, yellow, or green flowers with a somewhat brighter lip that is covered in dense, golden hair and grows numerous, long, thick, horizontal roots under a short rhizome.
About the discovery of Lecanorchis Taiwaniana
A parasitic bloom known as “Lecanorchis Taiwaniana” was discovered in Assam by forest officer Jatin Sharma, who is also a Member Secretary of the State Medicinal Plants Board. It is modest both in terms of size and blooming time. It’s a mycoheterotroph, which means it’s a parasitic plant that has abandoned photosynthesis. Journal of Botany, a Japanese journal, published the discovery. This little Japanese Orchid variety has been discovered in India for the first time. It was detected before in Japan, Taiwan, and Laos.
Because of the short flowering times and morphological similarities, precise identification of the ‘Lecanorchis’ species is often difficult.
A thorough morphological examination indicated that this undiscovered species is Lecanorchis taiwaniana.
The new species resembled the nigricans species and shared 90% of its DNA with the taiwaniana species, which was named after Taiwan.
Identification
It’s a Japanese orchid variation. Mycoheterotrophs, or parasitic plants that have given up photosynthesis, include Lecanorchis taiwaniana. It is one of India’s tiniest orchids, both in terms of size and bloom duration. Lecanorchis taiwaniana adds to northeast India’s orchid diversity, which includes 800 of the country’s 1,300 species. The Western Ghats have about 300 species and the northern Himalayas have about 200.
Myco-heterotrophÂ
A number of flowering plants have stopped photosynthesis, and these are classified as either haustorial parasites or myco-heterotrophs. Some refer to all of them as “parasitic plants,” which is accurate in some ways because both categories get their nourishment from another plant. The distinction is that haustorial parasites eat another plant directly through a modified root called the haustorium, whereas myco-heterotrophs eat the plant indirectly through a mycorrhizal fungus.
With a few exceptions, most myco-heterotrophic plants are now regarded to be ‘cheats,’ taking carbon and nutrients from neighboring autotrophic plants’ mycorrhizal partners. As a result, most myco-heterotrophs are classified epiparasitic on green plants. Myco-heterotrophic epiparasites have infiltrated both the ectomycorrhizal and arbuscular mycorrhizal symbioses. DNA analysis is revealing the names of many of myco-heterotrophs’ fungal partners, as well as their very high specificity. Myco-heterotrophs have distinct stable isotope signatures that can be used to determine whether green plants that are partially myco-heterotrophic rely on fungal carbon.
Conclusion
Thus, the discovery of Lecanorchis taiwaniana adds to northeast India’s orchid bounty (NEI). There are roughly 1,300 orchid species in India, with 800 in the Northeast, 300 in the Western Ghats, and 200 in the northwestern Himalayas.
