Cattleya × jequieensis Barrera-Rojas & Van den Berg, 2025

Cattleya × jequieensis Barrera-Rojas & Van den Berg , nothosp. nov.

( Figures 1–2 View FIGURE 1 View FIGURE 2 ).

Haec species inter Cattleyam amethystoglossam et C. warneri in pluribus characteribus quasi intermedia et ex hybridatione harum specierum orta. Ab C. warneri internodiis in quoque pseudobulbo pluribus, labello conspicue trilobo, ab C. amethystoglossa internodiis pseudobulborum paucioribus foliis majoribus et apicibus pseudobulborum nitide dilatatis differt.

Type:— BRAZIL. Bahia: Jequié, district of Itajuru, epiphyte in ombrophilous forest, 702 m, flowered in cultivation on 1 August 2024, C. van den Berg 3378 & C.H.Barrera-Rojas ( holotype: HUEFS) ( Figure 3 B View FIGURE 3 ).

Description: — Epiphytic herb. Pseudobulbs: 23.0–29.0 cm long, 0.7–1.1 cm wide at the base and 2.2–2.8 cm wide at the apex, erect, clavate-cylindrical, with 4–5 internodes, flattened at the last internode, covered with paleaceous, closed, oblique sheaths with an obtuse apex. Leaves 1–2, 23.0–28.0 × 8.0–9.0 cm, patent, slightly concave, succulent, lanceolate, apex emarginate, base truncate, margin entire and smooth. Inflorescence from a short raceme, 8–10 cm long with 4 flowers emerging from a single spathe; peduncle ca. 9.2 × 0.7 cm, erect, cylindrical; scape bracts ca. 2.5 cm long, paleaceous, base truncate, apex acute; floral bracts ca. 0.15 cm long, paleaceous, base truncate and apex acute; pedicel ca. 0.24 cm long; sepals thick, pink, oval-elliptic, base truncate, margin smooth; dorsal sepal ca. 6.2 × 1.4 cm; lateral sepals ca. 5.0 × 1.7 cm, slightly falcate; petals ca. 6.5 × 3.7 cm, thick, same color as the sepals, elliptic to sub-obovate, slightly falcate, base truncate, margins slightly wavy; labellum ca. 5.0 × 5.3 cm, conspicuously trilobed, pinkish, disc yellowish-white, slightly veined; lateral lobes pink, ca. 4.5 × 2.7 cm, triangular, enveloping the column, with sub-truncated apex; terminal lobe purple, ca. 2.0 × 3.6 cm, apex emarginate, margin wavy; column 2.4 × 0.9 × 0.6 cm, white, with apex tinged with pink around the anther. Ovary ca 3.15 cm long.

Etymology: —The nothospecific epithet was given as reference to the municipality of Jequié, Bahia, Brazil, from where the type specimen was collected.

Molecular analyses: —The electropherograms allowed accurately reconstructing the psbA-trnH sequence of the hybrid, but not ITS. In ITS the sequences were very confusing probably due to length polymorphism, which is common in F1 hybrids. Because of that, only about 100 bp of low quality sequence close to the primers could be observed in the 5’ of the ITS region. Comparison of this initial part of the sequence with both putative parentals seem to show more similarity between the hybrid and C. warneri (data not shown, not conclusive).

In the psbA-trnH spacer there was little nucleotide divergence (see Figure 4A View FIGURE 4 ), but the sequence of the hybrid was very close and sister to C. warneri 97% (bootstrap support-BS), with 2 nucleotide differences. The differences could be caused by the fact that the sequence of C. warneri retrieved from GenBank is not from a geographically close specimen, and phylogeographic differences might occur. These differences and similarities can be exemplified in Figure 4 D–E View FIGURE 4 . Since the indels were not considered in the parsimony analysis, we selected the two largest indels which are shared between the hybrid and C. warneri , graphically presented in Figure 4 B–C View FIGURE 4 . The overall results indicate that C. warneri must be the female parent, based on maternal plastid inheritance indicated by the psbA-trnH sequence. As mentioned above, for ITS electropherograms are messy and inconclusive, a result that can be expected in Sanger sequencing data of F1 hybrids due to indel mutations when concerted evolution still did not take place.

Taxonomic discussion:—The occurrence of natural hybrids in Cattleya is rather common, especially those involving parental species of subgenus Intermediae . Of the 89 nothospecies previously reported ( van den Berg 2014b), 30 presented both parental species belonging to subgenus Intermediae , and seven were hybrids between species from subgenus Intermediae and section Cattleya , in a similar fashion to the hybrid described in the current work. The relative facility to create hybrids is probably a combination of species presenting overlapping phenology such as the ones in the current study, as well as shared pollinators. Natural pollinators for C. amethystoglossa and C. warneri are unknown, but their large flowers, colors and shape indicate the need for large-sized bees, such as those from the genera Bombus Latreille (1802: 437) , Eulaema Lepeletier (1841: 11) , or Xylocopa Latreille (1802: 379) . Smidt et al. (2006) reported the pollination of Cattleya elongata Barbosa Rodrigues (1877: 72) and Cattleya tenuis Campacci & Vedovello (1983: 1) by queens of the bee Bombus brevivillus Franklin (1913: 119) in the Chapada Diamantina, Bahia. Both species belong to Cattleya subg. Intermediae , have very similar flower size and morphology to C. amethystoglossa , and their natural hybrid is quite common in different populations. On the other hand, there is no pollinator reported for any of the Brazilian species from section Cattleya , either for C. warneri or the morphologically similar C. labiata Lindley (1824 : t. 33). The only report for species of section Cattleya overall was made by van der Pijl & Dodson (1966) for Cattleya warscewiczii Reichenbach (1854: 112) in Colombia, which was pollinated by females of Eulaema polychroma Mocsáry in Friese (1899: 170) and E. cingulata ( Fabricius 1804: 2) Moure 1960: 145 ). Both Eulaema and Bombus brevivillus are more common in open areas, and the latter has been reported as pollinator in Chapada Diamantina, Bahia, by Silva-Pereira et al. (2007), in species with large flowers, namely Cattleya sincorana ( Schlechter 1917: 72) Van den Berg (2008: 11) , or species with much smaller flowers, such as C. pfisteri ( Pabst & Senghas 1975: 274) Van den Berg (2008: 10) . In the case of the hybrid being described here, the latter could be a likely candidate, however the new hybrid comes from humid rainforest nearer the shore, and the pollinators might be different. These difficulties emphasize the need for more pollination studies, including the absence of pollination ecology data for C. amethystoglossa and C. warneri .