About Long-ray Bee Orchid
Cottonia is a monotypic genus of flowering plants from the orchid family, Orchidaceae: the only known species is Cottonia peduncularis. It is native to India and Sri Lanka. The genus was erected by Robert Wight and named after Major Frederick Cotton, an amateur botanist who served in the Madras Engineer Group and collected the species from Tellichery. A coloured illustration of the plant had been sent to Wight by Thomas C. Jerdon. This epiphytic orchid has a lip shaped like a hairy bee (as in the well-known Ophrys apifera) giving it the name of bee-orchid but, unlike species in the genus Ophrys, no specific bee pollinator has been identified. It was first described as Vanda peduncularis by Lindley.
Description adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Plant Details
- Scientific name
- Cottonia peduncularis
- Genus
- Cottonia
- Family
- ORCHIDACEAE
- Habit
- Herb
- Distribution
- India, Sri Lanka
- Flowering & fruiting
- January-May
- Conservation status
- Not Evaluated (NE)
Orchidaceae
Orchid family
Long-ray Bee Orchid belongs to the Orchidaceae family.
The illustration represents the family — not necessarily this exact species.
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