BOTANY WITH BASICS OF HYDROBOTANY (AQUATIC PLANTS OF UKRAINE) - B.Ye. Yakubenko - 2011

X. SEED PLANTS

Orchid Family (Orchidaceae)

Perennial plants, often epiphytes in the tropics, with underground Organs represented by rhizomes or tubers. Leaves alternate, more rarely opposite or whorled, sheathing or stem-clasping, entire. Flowers axillary, mostly bisexual, entomophilous, featuring complex adaptations for cross-pollination. They are gathered into spikes, racemes, panicles, or occur singly. The perianth is corolla-like, consisting of two three-merous whorls; one of the segments of the inner perianth whorl almost always differs from the others in shape, size, and color, forming a lip (labellum) that frequently bears a spur. Stamens are reduced to one, rarely two, and are fused with the style; the pistil is formed by three fused carpels, with an inferior, unilocular Ovary. The fruit is a capsule, and the seeds are numerous and minute. The family comprises about 25,000 species, distributed primarily in the humid Regions of the tropics and subtropics. The native flora of Ukraine includes 28 genera and 66 species, the majority of which are listed in the Red Data Book of Ukraine. A greater number of species grow in peat bogs, among which the most widespread representatives belong to the genera Orchis, Dactylorhiza, Hammarbya, Malaxis, and Epipactis.

Genus Orchis (Orchis L.). It is represented in Ukraine by 26 species, distributed largely throughout the country and in the Carpathian Mountains. These are perennial plants with two palmately lobed or entire ovate tubers. Leaves are alternate, frequently spotted. Flowers are gathered into more or less dense racemes; they are small and come in various shades of pink, purple, white, or yellow. Two inner and one or all outer perianth segments converge at their apices to form a galea (hood). The lip is three- to four-cleft or entire, bearing a spur at the base. There is a single stamen, with pollinia on long stalks. The ovary is sessile and twisted. All species growing in Ukraine are listed in the Red Data Book. The population of orchids is declining due to their harvesting as medicinal raw material, picking for bouquets as exceptionally ornamental plants, land drainage, etc. Dried tubers, known as "salep", have long been used as a general tonic, during the recovery period after strokes, for herpes rashes, and to treat slow-healing ulcers.

Veiny Orchid (Orchis nervulosa Sakalo). Bracts of the lower flowers in the inflorescence have finely denticulate margins and three dark Veins. Flowers are brownish-purple with a vanilla scent. The lip is three-lobed, with an elongated middle lobe. It blooms in May–June. It grows in floodplain meadows, occasionally found in Chernihiv and Cherkasy regions, within the Dnipro river valleys.

Bug Orchid (O. coriophora L.). The plant is 15–35 cm tall. The spur is 4–6 mm long, twice as short as the ovary; the middle lobe of the lip is obtusish at the apex. Flowers are brownish-purple, with a characteristic scent. Tubers are elliptic. It blooms in June–July. It grows in waterlogged meadows in the Carpathians, Roztochia-Opillia, Polissia, the Forest-Steppe, and rarely in the Steppe.

Class="center">Water/water.files/image189.jpg" width="238"/>

Fig. 187. Marsh orchid (Orchis palustris)

Marsh Orchid (O. palustris L.). The plant is 18–80 cm tall; the lip is shallowly three-lobed, its middle lobe broad, slightly longer than the lateral ones, two-lobed at the apex; the spur is almost straight (Fig. 187).

It grows in damp saline meadows and bogs in Transcarpathia, Crimea, and the Forest-Steppe.

Military Orchid (O. militaris L.). The plant is 10–40 cm tall. Bracts are pinkish-purple; the lip is 10–14 mm long, deeply three-cleft, equal in length to the hood; the middle part of the lip is pale pink with purple hairs in the central section, divided at the apex into two lobes with an awl-shaped tooth in the sinus between them. The spur is 6 mm long, narrowly cylindrical. It grows in moist meadows, among shrubs, and in damp forest clearings. It is distributed mainly in the Right-Bank Forest-Steppe and Polissia, and is rare in the Steppe. It blooms in April–June. Most orchids are valuable medicinal plants; their dried tubers, historically known as "salep", are used. In traditional medicine, they were employed as a powder for preparing decoctions in cases of poisoning, and as a restorative tonic following severe illnesses. Orchid tubers contain up to 50% mucilage, 27% starch, 5% proteinaceous substances, 1% CARBOHYDRATES, mineral compounds, and calcium oxalate. For this reason, as well as due to bog amelioration, most Representatives of the orchid family are classified as rare species and are listed in the Red Data Book of Ukraine.

Bog Adder's Mouth (Hammarbya paludosa (L.) O. Kuntze). The plant is 6–20 cm tall, with a stem thickened at the base. Leaves number three to four, are ovate or oblong, and situated in the lower part of the stem. Flowers are small, yellowish-green, gathered into a dense raceme. It blooms in July–August. It grows in peat bogs and moist meadows. It occurs very rarely in the Carpathians, Precarpathia, Forest-Steppe, and Polissia.

Fen Orchid (Liparis loeselii (L.) Rich.). The plant is 10–20 cm tall, with a short rhizome and a stem swollen at the base; the lower three leaves are sheathing, while the upper ones are well-developed, oblong, transitioning into a winged petiole, and almost opposite. The raceme is loose; flowers are small and yellowish-green. It blooms in June–July. It grows in peat bogs and marshy meadows. It is rarely found in the Carpathians, Precarpathia, the Forest-Steppe, the Steppe, and Polissia.

Marsh Helleborine (Epipactis palustris (L.) Crantz). The stem is 20–50(70) cm tall, glabrous at the base and slightly pubescent in the upper part. Leaves are oblong or oblong-lanceolate, glabrous, 8–15 cm long; the upper leaves are smaller, lanceolate, and bract-like. The raceme is 6–15(20) cm long, few-flowered, with lanceolate bracts shorter than the flowers (Fig. 188).

Fig. 188. Marsh Helleborine

Perennial petals are greenish, with indistinct dingy-purple stripes on the underside; the lip exceeds the outer perianth segments in length; the posterior lobe of the lip is slightly concave with two triangular lateral lobes; the anterior lobe of the lip is white, slightly emarginate with wavy margins. The gynostemium (Column) is 4–5 mm long, pubescent. It blooms in June–August.

It grows in damp waterlogged meadows and peat bogs, and is found in the Carpathians, Polissia, the Forest-Steppe, the Steppe (in the valleys of the Dnipro and Siverskyi Donets rivers), and Crimea.

Traunsteiner's Marsh Orchid (Dactylorhiza traunsteineri (Saut.) Soo). The stem is 20–35(50) cm tall, straight or slightly flexuous; tubers are two- to three-lobed with long ROOT-like ends on the lobes. Leaves number three to five, are spotted, frequently folded along the central vein, arcuate-curved, rarely straight, linear, 6–14 cm long, with the upper ones shorter. The inflorescence spike is short-cylindrical or sub-ovate, dense, 3–6(9) cm long; bracts are lanceolate, with the lower ones slightly longer than or equal to the flower. Flowers are violet-purple, the lip adorned with a darker rhombic pattern of continuous or interrupted lines; the outer perianth segments are lanceolate with three to four veins; the lip is covered externally with minute papillae, obovate or broadly rhombic; the spur is cylindrical-conical, straight, narrowed at the tip. It blooms in May–August. It grows in bogs in Polissia and in the vicinities of Lviv, Zhytomyr, and Kyiv.

Spotted Marsh Orchid (D. maculata (L.) Soo). It differs by its short-three-lobed lip with a small, often dentate middle lobe. It grows in bogs, waterlogged meadows, and forest clearings. It is found in Transcarpathia, the Carpathians, and Roztochia-Opillia.

May Marsh Orchid (D. majalis (Reichenb.) P. F. Hunt et Summerhayes) grows occasionally in damp meadows.