Distribution : Aire bipolaire (
GBIF;
Flora do Brasil 2020;
Tropicos; Romero-González, Harvard Pap. Bot., 4(2):
[505-]510-512[-518]. 1999; Romero-González 2003; Vásquez
et al. 2003; Romero-González
et al., Harvard Pap. Bot., 13(1):
196. 2008):
(1) Cerrado: Brésil (Mato Grosso, Goiás, Distrito Federal, Bahia, Minas Gerais, São Paulo), Bolivie (Santa Cruz);
(2) Guyanes: Suriname (Sipaliwini, Rombouts 407, AMES, NY), Guyana (haute Mazaruni, 800 m, Tillett 45848, NY; Cuyuni-Mazaruni, T.McDowell 2753, HB), Rupununi (Roraima brésilien) et Bolívar (Gran Sabana, San Ignacio, 850 m, Duno 37, VEN).
Taxonomie : D'après Romero-González, Harvard Pap. Bot., 4(2):
512. 1999): "This distinct species was overlooked by orchid specialists for over 150 years. Schomburgk (1839) was perhaps the first traveller to report it in the literature, and it is among the species of
Cyrtopodium in his collection of "original water-colour drawings of plants made in British Guiana" (248 plates drawn during his travels in 1835-1839; title quoted from Woodward, 1913: 1856). In a plate depicting three species of
Cyrtopodium, plant "A" appears to be
C. cristatum Lindl., inflorescence "B" is
C. fowliei, and inflorescence "C " is
C. parviflorum Lindl.
Cyrtopodium fowliei is also represented in the Reichenbach herbarium by a set of flower sketches in watercolor drawn from a specimen originally collected in Mount Kukenam, Venezuela, dated June 1884 (No. 27371, W), and by Gustav Wallis's drawing number 39, based on a plant from the Rio Branco, Brazil (No. 32403, W).
Cyrtopodium fowliei would have been excluded from the Orchidaceae of the Venezuelan Guayana had it not been for the keen eye of João A.N. Batista who, during a visit to the Orchid Herbarium of Oakes Ames, identified the color photograph in Huggins (1991: 445). This photograph was taken in San Ignacio de Yuruaní, the same site where the only Venezuelan specimen cited above was collected."
D'après F.Barros
et al. (Taxon, 52(4):
841-849. 2003): "This is a very typical species, which has been repeatedly misidentified by several authors. It can be recognized by the small reddish-purple pseudobulbs, which are partially to completely buried in the ground, the 0-2(-3)-branched inflorescence, the yellowish to greenish sepals and petals, which are profusely marked with reddish-brown dots, and the somewhat orange lip. Material of this species was formerly collected by Schomburgk in Guiana, between 1835 and 1839 (Romero-Gonzalez, 1999) and afterwards by Hoehne in 1909 in the state of Mato Grosso (Brazil) (Hoehne 1910; fig. 33, identified as
C. parviflorum). Hoehne (1942) mistook it for
C. poecilum f.
minor, and misinterpreted the true
C. poecilum as
C. vernum. These mistakes were perpetuated by subsequent authors (e.g., Menezes, 1992). When describing
C. fowliei, Menezes (1995c) neither outlined the historical background of the species (which can be traced in classical works like the Flora Brasilica) nor presented the criteria for recognizing the new species. More complete information and a more detailed history of the species will be published in the near future by Bianchetti and Batista. Among the material examined, some specimens come from exactly the same locality and population as the holotype, including the proposed epitype. The species is typical of temporarily to permanently moist open fields, and grows on deep sandy-clay dark soil, usually bordering flooded gallery forests. In central and southeastern Brazil, the flowering time begins at the end of the dry period (September), but is concentrated mainly at the beginning of the rainy season from October to December, and occasionally extends until February. In northern South America flowering time is apparently more variable, ranging from October to June."
Type : Brésil, Distrito Federal, Reserva Ecologica do Guará, 14/10/1994, fleurs. Planta terrestre de áreas úmidas periodicamente alagadas no período chuvoso, pseudobulbos completamente enterrados, flores pequenas amarelo-alaranjado ou ainda esverdeado e pintalgadas. L.C. Menezes UB-53 (HT: UB).
Brésil, Distrito Federal, Guará, Guará Ecological Preservation 10/11/2001, J.A.N. Batista 1269 (ET: CEN [désigné par F.Barros
et al., Taxon, 52(4):
841-849. 11/2003]; IET: AMES, HB, MBM, SP).