Home › P › Ponthieva (Named in honour of M de)

Ponthieva (Named in honour of M de)

(named in honour of M. de Ponthieu, a French West India merchant, who sent a number of plants to Sir Joseph Banks). ORD. Orchideae. About ten species have been referred to this genus. They are curious, stove, terrestrial, glabrous or pilose orchids, with tufted roots, dispersed over the warmer parts of America, from Brazil as far as the Southern United States. Flowers mediocre, shortly pedicellate, disposed in loose, often glandular-pubescent racemes; sepals free, spreading; petals narrower, adnate to the column; lip posterior, adnate to the base of the column, the lamina abruptly dilated, spreading; column beaked; pollen masses bilobed; scapes elongated, simple. Leaves sub-radical, ovate or lanceolate, more or less stalked, membranous. The species known in gardens are described below. They thrive in a compost of sandy loam and peat, and require to be kept dry when at rest. Ample drainage must be provided.

P. glandulosa (glandular). fl. bright green, with the edges of the petals white; lateral sepals flat; dorsal one loosely agglutinate, with the petals in a rhomboid, tridentate lamina. l. cuneate-oblong, narrowed into a short petiole. Stem about 1ft. high. West Indies, &c., 1800. (B. M. 842, under name of Neottia glandulosa.) P. maculata (spotted).* fl. widely spreading, 3/4in. across; dorsal sepals pale brown, with darker streaks, ovate-lanceolate; lateral ones white, with brown spots, twice as large; petals yellow, with red-brown streaks, dimidiate-oval, parallel, clawed; scape stout, erect, bearing a loose, raceme-like spike. March. l. 1ft. long or less, sessile or narrowed into petioles, elliptic-lanceolate to narrowly oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, pale green. h. above 1ft. Columbia, &c. Whole plant covered with long, flaccid hairs. (B. M. 6637.) P. petiolata (petioled). fl. yellowish-cinnamon in colour; lateral sepals with revolute margins; dorsal one forming, with the petals, an oblong, undivided lamina. l. ovate-oblong, shorter than the petioles, with crisped margins. Stem 1 1/2ft. high. St. Vincent, 1822. (B. R. 760; L. B. C. 1190.)