Angiosperms (Flowering Plants) • Earth.com

Acampe rigida

(Acampe rigida)

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en

Description

Acampe rigida is a species of orchid native to the forests of tropical southern Asia where it grows on trees and rocks at altitudes of up to 1,800 m (6,000 ft). Acampe rigida is a robust species with an unbranched stem up to 1 m (40 in) in length and 20 mm (0.8 in) in diameter. The leaves are disticious. The stem nodes are about 25 mm (1 in) apart and each bears a somewhat fleshy, upright leaf with sheathing base. The apices of the leaves are obtuse and unequally bilobed. The inflorescence is unbranched or sparsely branched, with many slightly fragrant, upturned, cup-shaped flowers less than 25 mm (1 in) in diameter. The petals are fleshy, and are yellow with purplish-brown stripes; they have a thick, white, three-lobed lower lip, and a short spur. They are followed by cylindrical or fusiform capsules. Acampe rigida is native to the Andaman Islands, Assam, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam. It occurs in forests, either growing epiphytically on the branches and trunks of trees, or growing on rocks, and often forming dense clumps. Its altitudinal range is from 300 to 1,800 m (1,000 to 6,000 ft). Acampe, abbreviated as Acp in horticultural trade, is a genus of monopodial, epiphytic vandaceous species of orchids, distributed from tropical Asia from India, eastwards to China and southwards to Malaysia, and the Philippines as well as from tropical Africa, Madagascar and islands of the Indian Ocean.The name Acampe was derived from the Greek word akampas, meaning "rigid", referring to the small, brittle, inflexible flowers. Acampe produce slow-growing, medium-sized vines that form very large vegetative masses in nature. They are noted for their thick, leathery, distichous leaves. They produce fragrant small to medium-sized yellow flowers, barred with orange or red stripes, in a few to many-flowered racemose inflorescence. The brittle sepals and petals look alike. The ear-shaped, fringed, white labellum (lip) is saccate (sac-shaped) or has a spur, and has red markings at its base. The fleshy column is short and has two waxy pollinia. Due to their large size and small flowers, they are rarely cultivated.

Taxonomic tree:

Domain:
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum:
Class: Liliopsida
Order:Asparagales
Family:Orchidaceae
Genus:Acampe
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