Cyrtorchis guillaumetii (Perez-Vera) Rice (2005: 27)

Azandi, Laura, Stevart, Tariq, Sonké, Bonaventure, Simo-Droissart, Murielle, Avana, Marie-Louise & Droissart, Vincent, 2016, Synoptic revision of the genus Cyrtorchis Schltr. (Angraecinae, Orchidaceae) in Central Africa, with the description of a new species restricted to submontane vegetation, Phytotaxa 267 (3), pp. 165-186 : 177

6. Cyrtorchis guillaumetii (Perez-Vera) Rice (2005: 27) . Basionym: Cyrtorchis brownii var. guillaumetii Perez-Vera (2003: 250) . Type:— IVORY COAST. Entre Buyo et Soubré, rive droite du Sassandra, 16 December 1963, J.L.Guillaumet 1767 (holotype UCJ (scan seen), isotype ABI)

Additional specimens examined:— SIERRA LEONE. Peiewa : Kailahun, 25 November 1983, Segerbäck 1555 (K) . IVORY COAST. Mt Toukoui , s. d., Perez-Vera 238 (K) ; ibid., November 1972, Perez-Vera 271 (K) .

Distribution:— According to Govaerts et al. (2016), Cyrtorchis guillaumetii is endemic to Ivory Coast, but we presently record it for the first time from Sierra Leone. Cyrtorchis guillametii is thus endemic to Upper Guinea Domain.

Habitat and ecology:— Epiphyte in high rainforest on upper branches of tall trees building up important colony ( Perez-Vera 2003). No information on the altitude was given for the cited specimens. In addition, we were not able to examine the holotype deposited at UCJ and ABI. Flowering period in November and December.

Notes:— Cyrtorchis guillaumetii was formally described as a subspecies of C. brownii ( Perez-Vera 2003) based on specimens collected in Ivory Coast. The taxon was then reported from Nigeria, Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea by Droissart et al. (2009). However, after examining the scans of the type specimen preserved in Abidjan, as well as additional specimens collected in Ivory Coast and housed at K, we found that most of these specimens cited in Atlantic Central Africa represent instead a new species that we describe in the present contribution as C. submontana .

We chose to follow the taxonomic rank given by Rice (2005) and Govaerts (2016) for Cyrtorchis guillaumetii because C. guillaumetii and C. brownii shows discriminant vegetative and floral features (see Table 1), which for us justified a specific rank.