Bull. Natl. Mus. Nat. Sci., Ser. B, 47(1), pp. 41–44, February 22, 2021

Nervilia cumberlegei (Orchidaceae), a Newly
Recorded Orchid from Myanmar
Myo Min Latt1,2, Byung Bae Park1 and Nobuyuki Tanaka3,*
1

Department of Environment and Forest Resources, College of Agriculture and Life Science,Chungnam National University, Republic of Korea
2
Department of Environmental Economic, Policy and Management,
University of Forestry and Environmental Sciences, Yezin, Myanmar
3
Department of Botany, National Museum of Nature and Science,
4–1–1 Amakubo, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305–0005, Japan*E-mail: nobuyuki_tanaka@kahaku.go.jp(Received 6 November 2020; accepted 23 December 2020)

Abstract Nervilia cumberlegei (Orchidaceae) is recorded in Myanmar for the ﬁrst time. Adescription, locality information and photographs are provided. Thus far N. cumberlegei is known
only from Taiwan and Thailand. This discovery in Myanmar represents the western edge of thespecies distribution.
Key words : Burma, section Linervia, Tanintharyi, taxonomy, terrestrial orchid.

Introduction
Nervilia Comm. ex Gaudich. is commonly
known as ʻshield orchidʼ. Most species grow inforested habitats and are shade-demanders (Galeet al., 2018). The genus Nervilia is most diversein tropical Asia, although it is widely distributedin the Old World tropics, from Australasia andthe South-west Paciﬁc Islands to sub-SaharanAfrica (Pettersson, 1991; Gale et al., 2015,2018). There are approximately 71 species in thegenus (Tang et al., 2018; WCSP, 2020). However, Nervilia remains poorly known, especiallyin the Asian region (Gale et al., 2014). Thisgenus is troublesome in taxonomic identiﬁcation
because of the development of ﬂower and leaves
in diﬀerent seasons (Chen and Gale, 2009). The
populations are often small, isolated and prone todemographic stochasticity (Gale et al., 2010;Gale et al., 2018). Nervilia is characterized byhaving a prominent fan-shaped leaf venation© 2021 National Museum of Nature and Science(Pridgeon et al., 2005; Tang et al., 2018) andﬂowers followed by a vegetative stem bearing asingle photosynthetic leaf (Niissalo et al., 2020).
Nervilia plants have antioxidant and antibacterialproperties (Ruthisha et al., 2018) and are used as
traditional medicine. Medicinal orchids are considerably threatened by anthropogenic impacts
such as habitat destruction, and illegal collection
for commercial and subsistence uses (Pant et al.,
2002; Pant, 2013).
In Myanmar, Kress et al. (2003) and Aung etal. (2020) recorded six species of Nervilia intheir checklists; Nervilia concolor (Blume)
Schltr. (＝N. aragoana Gaudich.), N. juliana(Roxb.) Schltr., N. khasiana (King & Pantl.)
Schltr., N. macroglossa (Hook.f.) Schltr., N. maculata (C.S.P.Parish & Rchb.f.) Schltr. [＝N.
parishiana (King & Pantl.) Schltr.] and N. plicata (Andrews) Schltr. In the latest checklist by
Aung et al. (2020), the number of species has notbeen changed, however, some names areupdated. During a ﬁeld trip to Tanintharyi
Region, Nervilia cumberlegei Seidenf. & Smiti-42

Myo Min Latt et al.

Fig. 1.

Nervilia cumberlegei and its habitat. A. Habitat. B. Leaf. C. Tubers. D. Inﬂorescence.

nand was collected, which was previously known
only from Taiwan and Thailand. This is the ﬁrst
record of N. cumberlegei from Myanmar.
Materials and Methods
The ﬁeld survey in Tanintharyi Nature Reserveand the adjacent area around San-daw-shin
Pagoda Hill, was carried out from April toAugust 2009. Herbarium specimens and living
material were collected and photographs weretaken. The measurements were taken in the ﬁeld.
Voucher specimens are kept in the Education
Center of Tanintharyi Nature Reserve and in theherbarium of the Forest Research Institute,Myanmar (RAF). The living specimens are cultivated at the Orchid House of Tanintharyi Nature
Reserve and are used for study.

Results and Discussion
The study area, ranging up to 10 km from thecoastal line to the intermittent mountain range inTanintharyi Nature Reserve, is covered by drydeciduous forest dominated by Dipterocarpus
obtusifolius Teijsm. ex Miq. (Dipterocarpaceae).
In April 2009, two Nervilia inﬂorescences werecollected in bamboo leaf litter near Zinbarstream. From May to August 2009, several plants
with leaves were discovered along Zinbar stream
to Heinze stream as well as near San-daw-shin
Pagoda. The Nervilia plants did not match any
descriptions of the six species recorded in the latest checklist (Aung et al., 2020). After careful
examination of both herbarium specimen and living material, it was identiﬁed as Nervilia cumberlegei Seidenf. & Smitinand, described from
Khao Yai National Park, central Thailand. It ischaracterized by having an 2‒4-ﬂowered inﬂo-Nervilia cumberlegei, a newly recorded from Myanmar

rescence and green ﬂowers with white andstrongly ﬁmbriate labellum.
Taxonomic Treatment
Nervilia cumberlegei Seidenf. & Smitinand,Orch. Thail. (Prelim. List): 729 (1965); Seidenf.
in Dansk Bot. Ark. 32(2): 155 (1978); Leou inQuart. J. Expt. Forest Natl. Taiwan Univ. 11(2):75 (1997); Su in Editorial Committee of theFlora of Taiwan (ed.), Fl. Taiwan, ed. 2, 5: 978(2000); Chen and Gale, in Wu et al., (eds), Fl.
China 25: 200 (2009); Gale and Watthana inBalslev et al. (eds), Fl. Thailand 12(2): 559(2014).
[Fig.1 B–D]
Terrestrial herb growing among leaf litter,ﬂowering when leaﬂess, up to 8 cm tall in ﬂower,
leaf adpressed to the ground. Tuber white, globose, 8×10 mm. Subterranean stem from theapical node of the tuber, 2.7 cm long, 3 mm indiam. Leaf blade 4–5 cm in diam., dark green,reniform, fan-shaped, glabrous, with 9 veins,
thick and leathery, developing after ﬂowering.
Inﬂorescence 8 cm long, 3–4-ﬂowered; peduncle
1.5 cm long, 3 mm in diam., smooth, green, bearing linear-lanceolate, pale green, tubular sheaths,
sheaths 4×20 mm. Flowers green with whitefringed labellum, 3 cm across, sepals and petals
free, pedicel short, 2 mm long, green; sepals
green, narrowly elliptic, apex acute; dorsal sepal
15×2 mm; lateral sepals 15×2 mm; petal narrowly elliptic, 14.5×2 mm; labellum white,3-lobed, oblong, 15×4 cm, lateral lobes round,
mid-lobe fringed, pubescent; disk white withgreen veins. Column white, erect, ʻhuggedʼ bylateral lobes of labellum, 10 mm long, hypochile
greenish; anther cap white. Ovary conspicuous,green, 3-angled, 4 mm long.
Specimens examined: —MYANMAR. Tanintharyi Region. New Mi-chaung-laung and Heinze
Local Operation Unit, Tanintharyi Nature
Reserve, Yephyu Township, Dawei District, ca.
252 m elev., 14°30ʼ03.6”N, 98°13ʼ17.9”E, 25April 2009, Myo Min Latt 003 (RAF).

43

Habitat: —Nervilia cumberlegei grows in ahumus layer over clay in bamboo forest and instony soil in dry deciduous forest (Fig. 1A).
Phenology: —Flowering in April to May
before the rainy season.
Distribution: —Myanmar (new record), Taiwan and Thailand.
Note: —We propose the local name of thisspecies as “Tanintharyi Ta-bin-shwe-htee”. Tabin-shwe-htee is the Myanmar name of Nervilia.
Nervilia cumberlegei was previously known only
from Taiwan and Thailand. The discovery inMyanmar represents the western limit of the species distribution (Fig. 2).
IUCN Conservation Status: —Many populations were found in dry deciduous forest dominated by Dipterocarpus obtusifolius. However,
the extent of the populations remains unknown,
and the habitat is very close to rubber plantations
and human settlements. The species may bethreatened by further expansion of the rubberplantations and other agricultural land development. Therefore N. cumberlegei is here assessed
as Near Threatened (NT) (IUCN, 2012).

Fig. 2. The locality of Nervilia cumberlegei inMyanmar. A red circle indicates the newly
recorded population in Myanmar, and black circles known populations in Khao Yai National
Park, Thailand, and near Sun Moon Lake, central Taiwan, based on Seidenfaden and Smitinand (1965), and Su (2000).

44

Myo Min Latt et al.

Acknowledgments
This study was carried out by the University ofForestry and Environmental Science (UFES),
Yezin, and by the biodiversity conservation program of Tanintharyi Nature Reserve Project(TNRP) which is the ﬁrst collaborative project
between the Ministry of Environmental Conservation and Forestry (presently Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation),
Union of Myanmar, and PETRONAS Company
together with Total E & P Myanmar. The authors
are grateful to the Forest Department of Myanmar for permitting and supporting our botanicalsurveys in the protected areas. We sincerely
thank TNRP staﬀ Bo Bo Soe and Kyaw Thurafor their assistance in the ﬁeld.
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