2. 2 The uniflora alliance - white/pink flowers
(a) Anguloa uniflora, Rep
This is the type species of the genus. Hawkes describes pseudobulbs which are 100 to 175 mm tall, angular, rather
elongate in shape. Its broad plicate leaves are prominently folded, being over 600 mm long. The erect inflorescence
bearing a single flower is ISO - 200 mm tall, often many being produced per growth. The flowers are rather open
for the genus, and are described as being 'rather objectionably candy scented'. They are very waxy and long-lived.
Each is 100 mm long and wide, cup shaped, waxen white or creamy white. They are usually flushed and dotted inside
with pale bright pink or rose-pink. He notes it is a variable species which is mostly early spring flowering, and
is native of Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.
Kennedy1 notes uniflora
is often confused with the following species - virginalis - but that they are readily distinguished by the apical
portion of the lip of urnflora being heart-shaped and broader than the callus, whereas the apical portion of the
lip of virginalis is lance-shaped and much narrower than the" callus. The two lips are diagramatically illustrated.
. While the Spanish botanists Ruiz and Pavon discovered uniflora in Peru in 1777- 88, it
was not introduced into European cultivation until a orchid collector for the U.K. nursery James Veitch and Sons
refound it growing with Cypripedium (now Phragmipedium) caudatum amongst the scrub and low bushes in partial shade in the 1840s.
(b) Anguloa virginalis Lindley
Kennedy1 notes this species grows over an enormous
vertical altitudinal range. Some low altitude plants have been exported under the name Lycaste stirobetii - a warm
growing species but 'he believes the lips of these plants are identical to virginalis. Kennedy1 also notes that
the colour of the flower ranges from pure white to pink. Williams stated it is 'a rare and beautiful species which
grows about 300 mm 1 foot higli. Its (typical) blooms are white, spotted all over dark brown, produced in our December
to January and which are said to last three weeks in perfection.
Oakeley notes the flower has a pinched appearance, with the flower parts more open than the other white anguloas.
(c) Anguloa eburnea Williams
Some considered this a variant of uniflora , but Oakely (H.F. Oakley Anguloa, the Species the Hybrids and a Checklist
of Angulocastes Orchid Digest 63-4 Oct/Dec 1999) lists it as a disticnt species.
It was probably introduced fromcolombia around 1844 by Linden.
This produces a flower larger then uniflora, with heavy pink transvery barring on the inside. of the lip
(d) Anguloa tognettiae Oakley
This is a small flowered pretty white anguloa from Venezuela, first described in 1999. Although
only recently described, it is represented in herbveria under the name Anguloa uniflora.
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