Spathoglottis Blume

Abstract

The German-Dutch botanist Karl Ludwig von Blume, at that time deputy director of agriculture at the botanic garden in Bogor (Buitenzorg) in Java (today Indonesia), proposed Spathoglottis in the eighth part of his Bijdragen tot de flora van Nederlandsch Indie... (Contributions to the flora of the Dutch Indies), published in 1825 in Yakarta, Indonesia. The genus, whose name is derived from the Greek words spathe, blade, and glotta (tongue), in reference to the spathulate shape of the lip midlobe, is typified by Spathoglottis plicata Blume. There are about 50 species of Spathoglottis found growing naturally in India, China, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, New Guinea, New Caledonia, the Solomon Islands, Borneo and Australia