the recently described N. pangteyana from northern
India, but the two are otherwise separable by the very
reduced basal side lobes of the lip in the former. The lip
of many other species in the N. adolphi – punctata alliance
bears elongate papillae variously arranged in bands and
lines at different positions on the disk. Although
minutely papillose throughout, the absence of such
ornamentation in N. khaoyaica is distinctive and, in this
respect, allies it to N. muratana S. W. Gale & S. K. Wu of
southern China and northern Vietnam, as well as to N.
pangteyana. Phylogenetic reconstruction using sequence
data is required to clarify the new species’ relationships
within the section.
The scented, widely opening flower of Nervilia
khaoyaica, the saccate base of the lip, and the
protruding rostellum that acts as a physical barrier
between the pollinia and the stigmatic surface, are
probably indicative of an outcrossing pollination
syndrome, in contrast to the autogamous species of
the genus whose floral anatomy has been investigated
in relation to pollination strategy (Petterssen 1989;
Gale 2007).
A photograph in the book The Wild Orchids in
Yunnan (Xu et al. 2010) shows a species with only a
manuscript name assigned that appears similar to
the one described here. We have been unable to
obtain specimens from China on which to base a
critical comparison and we are therefore unable to
confirm, one way or the other, whether the two are
conspecific.
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Narong Jirawatkavi and Phetch
Triphetch for collecting herbarium material and
providing field information, and to Voradol
Chamchumroon and Narong Jirawatkavi for supplying
photographs. Orathai Kerdkaew helped prepare the
line drawing and André Schuiteman provided nomenclatural
advice.