Background and aims – Telipogon is an orchid genus with a main diversity centre located in the tropical Andes. Some small-flowered Telipogon species, formerly classified under Stellilabium, remain poorly known. During recent fieldwork in southern Ecuador, an undetermined species of a miniature Telipogon was recorded and collected. We aimed to taxonomically identify the orchid and understand its phylogenetic relationships.

Material and methods – We conducted field work in diverse parts of Ecuador and Peru, revised material deposited at various herbaria, and records available on iNaturalist. Furthermore, we extracted, amplified, and sequenced DNA sequences to evaluate the phylogenetic position of the undetermined species.

Key results – The unidentified species turned out to be an undescribed Telipogon species, which we describe and name here as T. villonacoensis. It has also been recorded in Colombia and Peru, an unusually wide distribution for a Telipogon species. Telipogon villonacoensis is distinguished by its pale green to yellow flowers, the elliptic petals and lip, minute lobes and red coloration at its basal third. This species appears to have a patchy distribution and specialized habitat preferences, growing as an epiphyte in montane shrublands and forests. Although fewer than 200 individuals have been documented so far, and its habitats face ongoing threats, our conservation assessment indicates the species could be classified as not threatened. Phylogenetic analyses resulted in a well-resolved tree, in which T. villonacoensis is placed within the clade of the South American miniature Telipogon and sister to, but genetically distinct from, T. pogonostalix, though it is morphologically more similar to T. alexii, a species placed in another subclade of South American miniature Telipogon.

Conclusion – Our results highlight the underestimated diversity and distribution range of miniature Telipogon and underscore the need for continued collaborative exploration and conservation in Andean ecosystems. These findings will contribute to a better understanding of orchid diversity and evolution of Telipogon species.

Colombia, Ecuador, new taxon, orchids, Peru, Stellilabium, taxonomy

Telipogon Kunth is a neotropical genus in the Orchidaceae that includes approximately 250 species, distributed across humid montane forests from southern Mexico throughout Central America and the Tropical Andes up to northern Bolivia (Dodson 2004; Martel and Nauray 2013; Baquero et al. 2022). Whereas most Telipogon species are characterized by bearing large and showy flowers (i.e. colourful flowers of more than 2 cm in diameter), some Telipogon species bear small and dull flowers of around or less than 1 cm in diameter. The latter have therefore been called miniature Telipogon (Martel et al. 2017). These small-flowered Telipogon were formerly classified under the genus Stellilabium Schltr. (Dressler 1999). However, phylogenetic studies (Williams et al. 2005; Chase 2009) have shown that Stellilabium species are nested within Telipogon, and have therefore been transferred to that genus.

Telipogon exhibits its highest richness, including numerous miniature species, in the tropical Andes. For instance, 10 species of miniature Telipogon species in Colombia (Martel pers. comm.), 14 species in Ecuador (Iturralde and Baquero pers. comm.), 10 species in Peru (Carlos Martel pers. comm.), and 7 species in Bolivia (Zárate and Martel 2024). However, the representation of miniature Telipogon species in herbaria is scarce because they are usually overlooked in the field. This resulted in the absence of comprehensive taxonomic treatments, leading to challenges in species identification and classification. Nevertheless, new species of this group have been discovered over the last years (e.g. Telipogon leisberthvelezii Iturralde, M.M.Jiménez & H.Garzón by Jiménez et al. 2024; T. minutus M.Zárate & C.Martel by Zárate and Martel 2024).

During our exploratory work over the past two years, one of the authors (MJ) found populations of one unknown species of miniature Telipogon in southern Ecuador, which underscores the rich biodiversity of the country’s montane forests and highlights the importance of continued botanical exploration in the region. Surprisingly, the same species has also been collected and recorded in Colombia and Peru by other researchers, which emphasizes the importance of collaborative work in the Neotropics. In this study, we provide a formal description of this species, accompanied by illustrations, photographs, and information on its distribution, habitat, phenology, and conservation status. Furthermore, we provide information to differentiate the new taxon from the most similar species, T. pogonostalix Rchb.f. and T. alexii N.H.Williams & Dressler.

The topologies of our reconstructed phylogenetic trees are consistent with those previously published (Williams et al. 2005; Neubig et al. 2012; Martel et al. 2020; Iturralde et al. 2023). Interestingly, basal clades within Telipogon are represented by species with large showy flowers, which are acaulous (e.g. T. dalstromii) or stemmed (e.g. T. venustus), whereas miniature Telipogon clades have evolved more recently. Miniature Telipogon species are split into two clades, one of central American taxa (i.e. T. acicularis, T. helleri (L.O.Williams) N.H.Williams & Dressler, T. smaragdinus) and one of South American ones, which suggests at least two independent events of plant size miniaturization in Telipogon. In the South American clade, T. astroglossus, a species with small purple setose flowers, is sister to the remaining group of miniature Telipogon, all of which showed a lower density of setae on the column, including species with few (e.g. T. villonacoensis) or no setae at all (e.g. T. alexii). This suggests that the column setae were progressively lost in more recently evolved miniature Telipogon. The clade of the South American miniature Telipogon is well resolved and our new species is genetically distinct from the other analysed taxa (PP = 1, BS = 93%), which supports the establishment of T. villonacoensis as a new species.

Telipogon villonacoensis shares morphological characteristics with T. pogonostalix and T. alexii, both from Ecuador. The three species are characterized by plants without evident pseudobulbs; flowers with glabrous, elliptic to obovate petals; the auriculate (auricle much smaller) lip with retrorse-ciliate margins; the column terete with only two lateral tufts of bristles of varying sizes (column dorsally bristleless) (Fig. 5). Morphologically, it is similar to T. pogonostalix by the shape of petals and lip, and the number of veins in the lip, which suggested a close affinity, as shown in the phylogenetic analysis presented here. In fact, T. villonacoensis was found to be more closely related to T. pogonostalix, T. boliviensis, and T. williamsii, with which it shares the shape of the lip and column. This subclade appears to be sister to T. hystrix which has a complex, broad and lobed column, with a deeply sagittate lip.

Figure 5. 

A, B. Telipogon villonacoensis, type specimen M. Jiménez 1560 (HUTPL). C, D. T. pogonostalix, G. Iturralde GI-2406-2870 (QCNE). E, F. T. alexii, G. Iturralde GI-2207-4061 (QCNE). Photos by Marco M. Jiménez (A–B) and Gabriel A. Iturralde (C–F).

Telipogon villonacoensis is easily distinguished from T. pogonostalix by the brown-purple colouration at the basal half of the lip (vs yellow-green lip) with a purple column (vs white column) and very short auriculae at the lip base (vs falcate auricle).

Although the new taxon resembles T. alexii morphologically, as they both have dark purplish flowers with purple columns and small auriculae at the lip base, the phylogenetic analyses indicate they are not too closely related.

Telipogon villonacoensis differs from T. alexii by the white to light yellow petals (vs cream-pinkish at the base and yellowish toward the apex), the elliptic-oblong to elliptic-obovate petals with subacute apex (vs narrowly ovate, long attenuate at the apex), lip 5-veined and brown-purple at the basal half (vs 3-veined and cream-pinkish lip), and column with 2–8 well-developed setae (vs column glabrous or with 2–4-minute setae) (Dodson and Dodson 1984) (Fig. 5).

The distribution of T. villonacoensis overlaps with that of some other miniature Telipogon species, which have some resemblances with the general pattern of the flower and the general shape of the petals and lip, such as the Ecuadorian T. jostii (Dodson) N.H.Williams & Dressler, the Peruvian T. selbyanus N.H.Williams & Dressler, and the Bolivian T. perlobatus (Senghas) N.H.Williams & Dressler. Supplementary material 1 summarizes the main characteristics to differentiate T. villonacoensis from other similar miniature Telipogon species.

The authors are indebted to Jorge Armijos, Wilson Raura, and Michael Burghardt for their valuable collaboration during this investigation. We thank Eugenio Restrepo and Daniel Mesa for providing information on Colombian specimens and Byron Freire for laboratory assistance. MMJ, GAI, and LB thank the Universidad de Las Américas (UDLA) for funding orchid research in Ecuador, grant No. 527.A.XV.24. We acknowledge the Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja herbarium (HUTPL) for supporting this research and hosting the holotype. We are also thankful to the Ministerio del Ambiente, Agua y Transición Ecológica (MAATE) of Ecuador for granting the research permit MAATE-DBI-CM-2022-0248 and CM-2021-0187. Lastly, we thank the anonymous reviewers for their input and suggestions in improving this manuscript. CM would like to express his gratitude to the Dirección de Fomento de la Investigación at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP) for supporting his orchid study through a research grant (PI1111).