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Lesser Twayblade

Neottia cordata (L.) Rich.

Brief Summary

provided by Ecomare
Lesser twayblade is an extremely small, vulnerable plant with two egg-shaped leaves on the stem. The stem is often tinted a purplish brown. Lesser twayblade only grows among coniferous needles in old pine forests. The plant was found for the first time in the Netherlands on Ameland in 1949. With the exception of Texel, it soon spread to the other Wadden Islands and a few places in Drenthe. It can still be found in old Scots pine forests on the Wadden Islands, particularly on Terschelling and Ameland. Every once in awhile, it is also found in non-wooded dune slacks on Amrum and in Great Britain.
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Comprehensive Description

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Trade controlled to avoid use incompatible with species survival - Global

Pollinators

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Listera cordata is pollinated by Fungus gnats. This orchid rewards its pollinators.

Neottia cordata

provided by wikipedia EN

Neottia cordata (as Listera cordata) from Bilder ur Nordens Flora

Neottia cordata, the lesser twayblade[2] or heartleaf twayblade,[3] is an orchid of upland bogs and mires that rarely exceeds 15 cm (5.9 in) in height. It was formerly placed in the genus Listera, but molecular phylogenetic studies have shown that Neottia nidus-avis, the bird's-nest orchid, evolved within the same group.[4]

It is never very common but may be frequently overlooked because of its small size and a tendency to grow underneath heather on sphagnum moss. The single erect flower-stem is often tinged red and is clasped near the base by a pair or ovate-orbicular glossy green leaves. The small flowers which look deceptively simple in structure for an orchid, are purple-green in colour with a somewhat swollen calyx.

Description

  • Plant: to 25cm tall elsewhere but usually not much more than 10cm in this area; two hear-shaped opposite leaves midway on the stem; up to 30 flowers.
  • Roots: 10 to 15 stringlike roots about 5cm long from base of swollen stem.
  • Leaves: cordate, about 2 ⨉ 2cm.
  • Floral bracts: tiny, 1mm long.
  • Flower: green (green to reddish elsewhere), perianth star-shaped, with protruding forked lip, about 5mm wide ⨉ 8mm long.
  • Sepals: green; dorsal sepal elliptical, slightly cupped, 2 ⨉ 1.3mm; lateral sepals lanceolate, 2 ⨉ 1mm.
  • Petals: green, broadly elliptical, 2 ⨉ 1.5mm.
  • Lip: green, linear over first half, ,deeply forked for lower half, 2mm wide ⨉ 4mm long, two hornlike appendages near column.
  • Column: short, stubby, with yellow granular pollinia in linear bundles.
  • Capsule: nearly spherical.

Taxonomy

Listera cordata was first described by Carolus Linnaeus in 1753, as Ophrys cordata. In 1813, Robert Brown identified O. cordata and O. ovata as members of a separate genus, Listera. Distomaea cordata (Linnaeus) Spenner was superseded by Bifolium cordatum (Linnaeus) Nieuwland.

Distribution

It has a circumpolar distribution being found in Europe, Asia and large parts of North America. In the United Kingdom its distribution is largely western and northern, becoming most common in the western Highlands of Scotland, Snowdonia in Wales, and the Lake District in England.[5] (Codes) [6]

Habitat

Listera cordata occurs in two apparently rather different habitats. On raw humus in damp to moist woodland, with a preference for spruce forest, in open wet heather moorland and in Sphagnum bogs. However, the two habitats may not really be so different, since the soil is usually acid in both habitats and the small plants in the open localities usually grow in the shelter of comparatively tall heather on north-facing slopes or in the wet Sphagnum of raised bogs.

Also grows in slightly to fairly damp places in pine, fir, and aspen forest at elevations between 9,000 and 10,300 feet (2,740 and 3,150 meters). It grows on flat to gently sloping terrain, usually in moderate to light shade. Often it grows in open forest in a habitat similar to that of Calypso bulbosa or Goodyera repens. The habitat appears slightly damper because of the relative abundance of herbaceous growth and perhaps the presence of slightly more mosses on the forest floor. Greater concentrations of plants accumulate near the edges of streams, seeps, and boggy areas. In these habitats, L. Cordata roots in mosses or damp duff.

Ecology

The flowers produce nectar and are pollinated principally by fungus gnats in the groups Mycetophilidae and Sciaridae.[7]

Mycorrhizal partners are almost exclusively fungi in the Sebacinales clade Serendipitaceae. There may also be some association with Ceratobasidiaceae and/or Tulasnellaceae.[8][9]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Neottia cordata", World Checklist of Selected Plant Families, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, retrieved 2012-04-04
  2. ^ BSBI List 2007 (xls). Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland. Archived from the original (xls) on 2015-06-26. Retrieved 2014-10-17.
  3. ^ USDA, NRCS (n.d.). "Listera cordata". The PLANTS Database (plants.usda.gov). Greensboro, North Carolina: National Plant Data Team. Retrieved 22 June 2015.
  4. ^ Stace, Clive (2010), New Flora of the British Isles (3rd ed.), Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-70772-5, p. 864
  5. ^ "World Checklist of Selected Plant Families".
  6. ^ "World Checklist of Selected Plant Families TDWG Geocodes" (PDF).
  7. ^ Journal of Ecology - Biological Flora of the British Isles: Neottia cordata
  8. ^ Journal of Ecology - Biological Flora of the British Isles: Neottia cordata
  9. ^ Molecular Ecology - Two widespread green Neottia species (Orchidaceae) show mycorrhizal preference for Sebacinales in various habitats and ontogenetic stages

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Neottia cordata: Brief Summary

provided by wikipedia EN
Neottia cordata (as Listera cordata) from Bilder ur Nordens Flora

Neottia cordata, the lesser twayblade or heartleaf twayblade, is an orchid of upland bogs and mires that rarely exceeds 15 cm (5.9 in) in height. It was formerly placed in the genus Listera, but molecular phylogenetic studies have shown that Neottia nidus-avis, the bird's-nest orchid, evolved within the same group.

It is never very common but may be frequently overlooked because of its small size and a tendency to grow underneath heather on sphagnum moss. The single erect flower-stem is often tinged red and is clasped near the base by a pair or ovate-orbicular glossy green leaves. The small flowers which look deceptively simple in structure for an orchid, are purple-green in colour with a somewhat swollen calyx.

license
cc-by-sa-3.0
copyright
Wikipedia authors and editors
original
visit source
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wikipedia EN