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Eulophia obtusa (Orchidaceae: Epidendroideae: Cymbideae)
an addition to the flora of Bangladesh, with notes on its ecology
and conservation status
Md Sharif Hossain Sourav
1
, Ronald Halder
2
, Pankaj Kumar
3
& André Schuiteman
4
Summary. Little published information exists about Eulophia obtusa, a showy and distinctive species previously
recorded from North India and Nepal. It is here reported from Bangladesh for the first time. The population
occurring in Bangladesh may represent a distinct colour form, with pure white instead of bright yellow sepals and
petals as in previous records. A species growing in seasonally waterlogged grassland, its only known site in Bangl-
adesh has already been destroyed for agricultural development. No reliable data on its present day occurrence in
India and Nepal could be obtained. However, the most recent of only three collections in the Kew Herbarium
dates from 1902, which suggests that it is quite a rare species. It must be assessed as critically endangered (CR) in
Bangladesh, according to the IUCN Red Listing criteria.
Key Words. endangered, habitat loss, Orthochilus.
Introduction
During a field trip in June 2008, in the Barind area of
Rajshahi (24°22'N, 88°36'E) in west Bangladesh
(Map 1), the second author photographed an unusual
wild orchid with grass-like leaves and attractive white
and rose-red flowers growing in tall grasslands
surrounded by agricultural fields. These grasslands
remain water-logged during the rainy season for
around two months. On 27 June 2014, the first author
revisited the site to explore the plant's habitat at
Godagari. About 20 flowering individuals of the orchid
were found growing among grasses, herbs, shrubs and
climbers. Based on studies of the protologue and
herbarium material, including the type, this striking
orchid was identified as the poorly known Eulophia
obtusa (Lindl.) Hook. f., which apparently is a new
record for Bangladesh.
Taxonomic treatment
The genus Eulophia R. Br. includes about 230 terres-
trial or sometimes lithophytic species, and is distribut-
ed worldwide in the tropics and subtropics, but
predominantly in Africa and continental Asia
(Pridgeon et al.2009). Of these, 10 species are
distributed in Bangladesh including the new record
of Eulophia obtusa (Govaerts et al.2016). Based on
molecular and morphological studies, Martos et al.
(2014) suggested that, in order to maintain the
monophyly of Eulophia, the genus Orthochilus Hochst.
ex A. Rich., should be reinstated, a position supported
by Bone et al. (2015). This proposal is still under
debate (Chase et al. 2015). If it is accepted, the
number of species for genus Eulophia will be reduced
to 164, but with essentially an unchanged distribution
area. There would be no change in the generic
position of E. obtusa.
Eulophia obtusa (Lindl.)Hook. f. (Hooker 1890: 3);
Duthie (1906: 129, t. 111). (Fig. 1)
Cyrtopera obtusa Lindl. (Lindley 1833: 190); Graphorkis
obtusa (Lindl.) Kuntze (1891: 662); Lissochilus
obtusus (Lindl.) Schltr. (Schlechter 1919: 260).
Type: India, Northwest India (Uttarakhand), on
the banks of Tonse R. near Deokhutul, J. F. Royle
s.n. (K000078320) (K!).
Eulophia campanulata Duthie (1902: 39). Syntypes:
India, Dehra Dun, at Karwapáni, W. Bell s.n.
(n.v.) and P. W. Mackinnon's collector s.n. (n.v.); N
Accepted for publication 8 March 2017.
1
Department of Environmental Science and Management, North South University, Dhaka, Bangladesh. e-mail: nature.sourav@gmail.com
2
Baikal Teal Production, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
3
Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden, Lam Kam Road, Tai Po, New Territories, Hong Kong.
4
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 3AB, UK.
KEW BULLETIN (2017) 72:19
DOI 10.1007/S12225-017-9689-2
ISSN: 0075-5974 (print)
ISSN: 1874-933X (electronic)
© The Author(s), 2017. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com
Map 1. Current location of Eulophia obtusa at Godagari, Rajshahi, Bangladesh.
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© The Author(s), 2017. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com
Fig. 1. Eulophia obtusa. Aplant in habitat; Bflowers; Cclose-up showing spur and callus; Dhabitat in 2014; Ehabitat in 2015.
PHOTOS:M.S.H.SOURAV.
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© The Author(s), 2017. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com
Oudh, at Chandanpur in the Gonda district,
Duthie's collector s.n. (n.v.)
Terrestrial, seasonally deciduous herb, bearing under-
ground corms. Corm white, dome-shaped, 2.5 –3.1 cm
wide and 3.3 –5.5 cm high, lying 10 –20 cm below
ground, bearing vermiform, white roots. Shoots 1 –5-
leaved, usually bifoliate, basal part formed by sheaths
enveloping the base of the inflorescence as well as the
leaf-bases. Leaves appearing with the inflorescence,
grass-like, 35 –50 cm long, 0.15 –0.5 cm wide, linear,
slightly plicate, apex acuminate, midrib prominent,
sheathing at base. Inflorescence erect, 40 –60 cm tall;
peduncle terete with a few distant, c. 5 cm long, linear-
triangular, sterile bracts; rachis up to c. 10 cm long,
bearing 4 –12 flowers usually opening simultaneously
and more or less evenly spaced. Flower 3–4 cm diam.;
sepals and petals white, lip white tinged pink, with
numerous deeper purplish pink, branching veins,
zone surrounding the mouth of the spur light green;
calli white, green in the basal part of the lip; spur
green; column creamy white, apex red-purple, anther
yellowish tinged green, with faint purple markings.
Floral bracts c. 1.4 cm long, lanceolate, acuminate,
much shorter than the combined length of pedicel
and ovary. Pedicel with ovary c. 24 mm long, curved,
glabrous, terete, ovary ribbed. Dorsal sepal c. 2.0 × 0.5
cm, oblong-lanceolate, acute, 7-nerved; lateral sepals
similar, c. 1.8 × 0.5 cm. Petals 1.8 × 0.6 cm, oblong-
lanceolate, obtuse. Lip 2.1 × 1.7 cm when flattened, at
right angles to the column, 3-lobed; lateral lobes
basal, erect, c. 5 × 4 mm, semi-elliptic, rounded;
midlobe c. 1.7 × 1.3 cm, elliptic, almost truncate,
margins undulate; callus complex, consisting of 3 –4
short, transverse ribs on either side of the mouth of
the spur, and 5 longitudinal ribs of unequal size and
height occupying most of the median part of the
midlobe; veins thickened; spur c. 6.7 mm long,
conico-cylindrical, obtuse, curved forward and ap-
pressed on the abaxial surface of the labellum.
Column 8 mm long, with short foot. Fruit not seen.
(Description based on material from Bangladesh
only). (Fig. 1).
DISTRIBUTION. Northwest India (Uttarakhand, Uttar
Pradesh, ?Assam, ?Chhattisgarh), ?Nepal, Bangladesh.
SPECIMENS EXAMINED.INDIA: Uttarakhand, Dehra Dun,
Karwapáni Swamp, 22 July 1899, P. W. Mackinnon 22722
(K!; probably one of the syntypes of Eulophia
campanulata); Uttar Pradesh, Upper Gangetic Plain,
Pilibhit, Bargadbhanki, 24 June 1902, Inayat 25796 (K!).
BANGLADESH: Rajshahi, Godagari, 27 June 2014, M. S.
H. Sourav 09 (DACB!). Also reported from Assam
(Dutta & Sarma 2013) and Nepal (Rajbhandari &
Dahal 2004; Rokaya et al. 2013); we have seen no
material from there, and these records require confir-
mation.
HABITAT.The only known site of Eulophia obtusa in
Bangladesh is situated in the high Barind tract, one of
the major agro-ecological regions comprising about
79% of Godagari upazila. The area lies at about 15 m
above sea level, and is not normally flooded, although
the grassland in which the orchid occurred was usually
water-logged during the peak of the rainy season. The
vegetation is composed of grasses like Imperata
cylindrica and Saccharum spontaneum as well as herbs
and shrubs, including Amorphophallus margaritifer,
A. paeoniifolius,Boerhavia diffusa,Chrozophora rottleri,
Colocasia esculenta,Commelina benghalensis,Croton
bonplandianus,Cyanotis cristata,Cyperus sp., Digera
muricata,Euphorbia hirta,Ficus hispida,Kyllinga
microcephala,Leucas lavandulifolia, Lippia alba,
Parthenium hysterophorus,Phyllanthus virgatus,Solanum
villosum,Uraria picta, and others. In North India,
Eulophia obtusa has been found in freshwater swamps
(Deva & Naithani 1986). The elevations have not been
recorded for the collections we have seen, but they are
probably all from below 200 m asl.
PHENOLOGY. Flowering: June –July; fruiting: not seen,
but local informants stated that they had seen the
plants in fruit.
NOTES. An unpublished painting from 9 July 1900 in
the Icones collection of Kew by H. Hormusji of an
orchid collected in the Raipur District of Central India
(Chhattisgarh) and grown by J. Martin represents a
taxon that is strikingly similar to the Bangladesh form
of E. obtusa in colour, except that it lacks the green
tinge in the basal part of the lip. It differs in the much
simpler callus structure: instead of a series of small
transverse calli along the mouth of the spur there are
just two large, wing-shaped, undulate calli, which are
connected to three (not five) lamellae on the mid-
lobe. Since the artist also drew the column, anther and
pollinarium in great detail, we do not think that the
simpler callus structure is due to a superficial and
inaccurate representation. If this painting represents a
form of E. obtusa, then it is evidence for a considerable
range extension towards the South. The painting had
been annotated as "Eulophia n. sp." by R. A. Rolfe.
It should be noted that Duthie (1906) claimed that
the collecting locality of Eulophia obtusa as cited by
Lindley refers to that of a specimen of E. flava (Lindl.)
Hook. f. There are no locality data on the type sheet of
E. obtusa, and we do not know on what grounds Duthie
made his claim.
Taxonomic notes
Eulophia campanulata was described as having bright
yellow sepals and petals, with incompletely reported
colours of the lip. A partially hand-coloured copy of
Duthie's plate (1906: t. 111) in the Icones collection at
Kew shows a creamy-white lip with a bright yellow
apical half of the mid-lobe, with purple suffusion at
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© The Author(s), 2017. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com
the base, and with a fine, irregular, transverse purple
line halfway the mid-lobe, separating the bright yellow
from the cream-coloured part. This species was
synonymised with E. obtusa by Duthie himself (1906).
There is a painting of a Falconer specimen at Kew
(Falconer 46), lacking locality data, which also has
yellow flowers, with hardly any purple on the lip. The
colours of the type collection of E. obtusa were not
recorded, therefore we do not know if the strikingly
different colours of our Bangladesh specimens are
unusual for the species. Since some species of Eulophia
can be quite variable in flower colour, and because the
morphology of our Bangladesh material agrees very
well with the type of E. obtusa, we do not doubt our
identification. The painting by Hormusji mentioned
above, if interpreted as representing E. obtusa, suggests
that the white-and-purple form also occurs in India.
Eulophia obtusa is quite different in floral morphol-
ogy from all other Asian species of Eulophia, except
E. explanata Lindl. That species, however, is easily
distinguished by the hardly developed spur, the
different callus structure on the lip, and the much
broader, elliptic leaves. In addition, the flowers of
E. explanata are only about half the size of those of
E. obtusa.E. obtusa also resembles some tropical
African species, especially E. cristata (Sw.) Steud. and
E. livingstoneana (Rchb. f.) Summerh. It remains to be
seen if the similarity is due to a close relationship or
convergent evolution.
Population and conservation
During the first author's visit in June 2014, about 20
mature flowering individuals were observed in an area
of about 0.8 hectares, but due to the tall and dense
vegetation it was difficult to find the specimens.
Undoubtedly many were missed, especially the ones
that were not in flower. Another visit was conducted
during August 2014 for fruit collecting, but this failed,
as it proved impossible to find the plants without
flowers; the grasses had become even taller than
before. The next field trip took place in May and
June 2015. Sadly, by then the whole habitat had been
destroyed and the grassland converted into agricultur-
al fields (Fig. 1E) using ox-ploughing. Local farmers
had planted Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) and Brinjal
(Solanum melongena).Throughinterviewswiththe
locals we learned that around 7 to 10 kgs of orchid
corm had been destroyed and there had been
approximately 500 individuals in the area. One
informant claimed that he had seen new plants
coming up from the cultivated ground and indeed,
after a thorough search, the first author counted
around 310 vegetative shoots in this agricultural field.
We assume that hundreds of the orchid corms were
lost by exposure to direct sunlight due to overturning
of the soil for cultivation of vegetables.
Many species of Eulophia (e.g. E. dabia (D. Don)
Hochr., E. graminea Lindl., E. herbacea Lindl.) are
usually found in open grasslands (Deva & Naithani
1986), and it would seem that for E. obtusa, such
grasslands are even the sole habitat. Destruction of
these uncultivated grasslands will certainly lead to
local extinction of some of these species. For the time
being the first author has taken immediate conserva-
tion action by fencing off the areas where plants
remain, with the consent of the land owner and the
local community. It remains to be seen if E. obtusa will
be able to survive here in the longer term. We hope
that steps towards ex-situ conservation can be under-
taken in the near future.
Conservation status
Orchids are often the victims of habitat loss, degrada-
tion and fragmentation, as well as unsustainable
collecting. In Bangladesh, Eulophia obtusa is clearly
under serious threat due to habitat loss and reduction
in the number of mature individuals. This species was
originally described from Uttarakhand in India
(Lindley 1833); it has later been collected from the
Gangetic plains by W. Bell, Mackinnon, Duthie and
Inayat prior to about 1902 (Duthie 1915; Deva &
Naithani 1986; Jalal et al. 2008). Since then it has, to
our knowledge, never been recorded from this region
again. Deva & Naithani (1986) stated, optimistically,
that "a search in fresh water swamps at the base of
Himalaya will definitely yield results." E. obtusa has also
been recorded from Chirang Reserve Forest, Assam
(Dutta & Sarma 2013) and Nepal (Rajbhandari &
Dahal 2004; Rokaya et al. 2013), but it was listed as
being of doubtful occurrence by Jalal (2012).
Accepting the above-mentioned Hormusji painting as
representing E. obtusa, the species has also been found
in Central India (Chhattishgarh). At the time of
writing there are no photographs of E. obtusa on the
internet, which is a probably a good indication that it
is indeed a rare species.
Without knowing the modern extent of occurrence
in India (and possibly Nepal) it is not possible to
provide a global assessment. The fact that it has not
been collected in Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, and
possibly Chhattishgarh for over a hundred years
suggests that it may well be an endangered species.
For Bangladesh there is a decline in the number of
mature individuals from 500 to 310, i.e. a 38% loss, a
severe degradation (if not a complete loss) of habitat,
and a continued threat of uprooting of plants due to
shifting agriculture. Based on the IUCN (2001) Red
Listing criteria, the species can be assessed as Critically
Endangered [B2ab(i,ii,iii,v)] in Bangladesh. Since it is
possible that the population occurring in Bangladesh
represents a unique and attractive colour form, its
protection as a subject of potential horticultural value
Page 5 of 6 19 KEW BULLETIN (2017) 72:19
© The Author(s), 2017. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com
seems all the more urgent. It would be a great loss if
this beautiful orchid were to disappear completely.
Acknowledgements
The first author expresses his deep gratitude to Prof.
D. Sarma for his encouragement to study the flora of
Bangladesh; to Mr J. M. Garg for his kind help in
circulation of the orchid pictures through his google
group, “efloraofindia”, and to Mohammad Abdur
Rashid for information on the Barind area and for
the habitat location map. We thank two anonymous
reviewers for valuable suggestions.
Open Access This article is distributed under the
terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (http://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use,
distribution, and reproduction in any medium, pro-
vided you give appropriate credit to the original
author(s) and the source, provide a link to the
Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes
were made.
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