New orchid find on Kinabalu
Published on: Thursday, February 12, 2015
Kota Kinabalu: A new orchid species found on Mount Kinabalu recently, has been named in honour of 86-year-old Professor John Beaman — an eminent botanist and authority on "Plants of Mount Kinabalu". His five-volume project with various collaborators provides an organised framework for further scientific work and is a landmark in our knowledge of Kinabalu's flora.A statement said Dilochia beamanii was described by Australian orchid taxonomist Paul Ormerod based on specimens collected by Beaman near Mesilau Cave on Kinabalu in December 1983 when he was attached to the then Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Sabah Campus as a Fulbright Professor. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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This beautiful large-flowered species is only found in lower and upper montane forests on Kinabalu and mostly on ultramafic soils between 1600–2600 m. This is one of the nine known species of Dilochia orchids which are distributed from Myanmar to New Guinea.
