Bulbophyllum nigricans (Aver.) J.J.Verm., Schuit. & de Vogel, Phytotaxa

Ormerod, Paul, Kurzweil, Hubert & Watthana, Santi, 2021, Annotated List of Orchidaceae for Myanmar, Phytotaxa 481 (1), pp. 1-262 : 40

Bulbophyllum nigricans (Aver.) J.J.Verm., Schuit. & de Vogel, Phytotaxa 166: 105, 2014

Basionym: Sunipia nigricans Aver. , Taiwania 52: 302, 2007.

Specimen examined:— SHAN. Monghpyak District : May 1937, Kingdon-Ward 12767 ( BM) .

Distribution:— Eastern Myanmar and northern Vietnam.

Note:— This is a new record for Myanmar. The specimen is a good match with B. nigricans , which was previously considered endemic to Vietnam. Shape and size of leaves, bracts and floral parts are largely identical. A remarkable similarity is also the many-flowered inflorescence (15–22 flowers), which is rare in this group of Bulbophyllum species. A minor difference is the shape of the pseudobulb, which is conical in the Burmese specimen but ovoid in the Vietnamese plant (however, this may partly be a drying artefact). Also, colour of the flowers differs slightly; Kingdon- Ward described them as ‘dark chocolate-coloured’ in the Burmese plant, whereas in Averyanov’s photo of Vietnamese specimens the flowers are blackish blue. A striking feature of the Vietnamese plant is the shape of the pollinarium with its single undivided stipe, but this feature could not be examined in the specimen from Myanmar as no pollinaria are present.