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Formation-to-fall: natural history and the journey of a lesser-known genus of orchids, Monomeria

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Abstract

This article investigates the history of a genus of orchids, Monomeria Lindl., known to science since its first collection in 1821, with the aim of highlighting the reasons for the loss of its original identity due to compelling nomenclatural changes. Monomeria remained a monotypic genus with its nomenclatural type, Monomeria barbata Lindl. until Reichenbach founded Monomeria crabro C.S.P.Parish & Rchb.f. in 1874. The only other accepted taxon, which was originally formed under Monomeria, was M. fengiana Ormerod in 2011. The systematic botanists treated Monomeria as an ally of Bulbophyllum Thouars and differentiated it on the basis of reproductive unit, the gynandrium. The historical investigations reveal that five species of Bulbophyllum, viz., B. longipes, B. gymnopus, B. kingii, B. dichromum and B. digitatum and one species of genus Acrochaene, viz., A. rimannii were renamed, at least once, under Monomeria. However, the altered names failed to sustain for long and got reduced to synonyms. In 2014, Monomeria, along with allied genera, was transferred to Bulbophyllum which effected restoration of founding binomials of five species of Bulbophyllum and offered new binomials for two taxa, i.e., B. fengianum for M. fengiana and B. rimannii for A. rimannii. The remaining taxon, M. barbata, suffered major loss of identity in terms of generic name, epithet, credit to founding author, basionym, homotypic synonym, nomenclatural type and locality, as it was offered a new combination, B. crabro (C.S.P.Parish & Rchb.f.) J.J.Verm., Schuit. & de Vogel. The generic name Monomeria was degraded to the rank of a Section within the genus Bulbophyllum. Hence, a provision in plant nomenclature to protect the credit of original authority is proposed in terms of a new label, ‘First Basionym’ as promising remedy.

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Acknowledgements

The author is honoured to dedicate this contribution to all researchers who have ever worked on orchids in India. The author acknowledges the facilities afforded at the Department of Botany, North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong, where he is studying the patterns in the forests and the flora of Northeast India under the doctor of science programme. The authorities of the CAL Herbarium, Howrah and ASSAM Herbarium, Shillong are thanked for access to specimens and use of digital images. The digging of literature for last two hundred years was possible due to the vision of the builders of Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL), Internet Archive (www.archiv.org), Herbarium Catalogue, Kew, Plants of the World Online, Kew and JSTOR. The support received from Mrs. Shilpi Agrawal and Mr. Amogha Shankar during growth and observations of the orchid in NEHU Campus, Shillong is thankfully acknowledged. The author expresses gratitude to Mr. Hemanta Das, Librarian, ERC-BSI, Shillong, anonymous reviewers for valuable suggestions on restructuring the article, the Editor of IJHS for considering the article for publication, and Sri Madhvendra Narayan, Associate Editor, who tediously worked for processing the manuscript and offered editorial improvements.

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    Uma Shankar

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Shankar, U. Formation-to-fall: natural history and the journey of a lesser-known genus of orchids, Monomeria. Indian J Hist. Sci. 56, 204–216 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43539-021-00022-0

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