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Coatzonte coxochitl, Lyncis flore seu Lyncea
Currently valid name: Stanhopea hernandezii (Kunth) Schlechter (1918.) |
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Detail of page 266 from
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Rerum medicarum Novae Hispaniae Thesaurus, seu plantarum, animalium, mineralium Mexicanorum historica ex Francisci Hernandez relationibus ... coscriptis a Nardo Antonio Reccho . collecta ac in ordinem digesta J. Trentio. Published by François Cesi, Accademia dei Lincei, Roma, 1651.
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As that can be seen on the reproduction above, according to Hernandez the local name of this orchid was 'Coatzonte Coxohitl'.
The name of Stanhopea tigrina Bateman ex Lindley 1838 may originate from this book, because the flower of S. tigrina is anything but closely similar to the shape, colors and stripes of a tiger. Here are some fragments of the original text written by Hernandez I could figure out from the original, much larger reproduction of the whole page. (It is not an exact, letter-by-letter translation, nevertheless, the gist is clear.) "The herb is Coatzonte Coxohitl, leaves similar to Iris but longer, broad, leaf stems are thin, green .... flowers are similar to heads of serpents .... colored ruby-like, punctuated with .... pale prominent spots, roots are truly long, in the young stage greenish and striped and contorted. .... The form of the flower is spectacular, odor is Lily-like, impossible to imitate it by describing with a pen, using words in a dignified (enough) way." Thus, for Hernandez the leaves appeared to be similar to Iris (Tigridia?) and the flowers to heads of serpents: "... flores capitibus serpentes similes" (line 4 in the text proper). Then in the last non-Italicized sentence Hernandez mentions its use to cure cold shivering (shivering fits), the symptom of extremely high body temperature caused by exposition to excessive radiation of the Sun. |
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Stanhopea hernandezii (Kunth) Schlechter (1918.)
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| Areal |
Mexico - Mexico and Morelos States. |
| Basionym |
Anguloa hernandezii Kunth 1822 |
| Synonyma |
Maxillaria lyncea Lindley 1832 |
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Stanhopea devoniensis Lindley (1838.)
Day's Scrapbook 29:6.(1867.) |
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Stanhopea devoniensis Lindley (1838.)
Sertum Orchidacearum, t. 1. (1838.) |
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The Genus Stanhopea was established by Sir William Hooker in 1829, through publication of Stanhopea insignis in the Botanical Magazine, named for the Right Honourable Philip Henry Mahon, 5th Earl Stanhope, President of the Medico-Botanical Society of London from 1829 to 1837.
Members of the Stanhopea genus are distributed throughout Central and South America.
The pollinators are large Euglossine bees.
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