Vanda malipoensis, a new species of Vanda (Orchidaceae: Epidendroideae; Vandeae) from China: evidence from morphological and molecular phylogenetic analyses

A new species of Vanda, V. malipoensis, from Yunnan, China, is described and illustrated in this study based on morphological and molecular evidence. Detailed morphological comparisons between the newly discovered orchid and other members of Vanda s. l. indicate that V. malipoensis is similar to V. christensoniana and V. nana. The new plant differs from the former species by the presence of inflorescences with sparse and smaller flowers, a shorter column and caudiculate pollinia, and it differs from the latter by the presence of longer inflorescences with fully open flowers and erect sidelobes of the lip. Molecular phylogenetic analyses based on nrITS and plastid datasets (atpI-atpH, matK, trnH-psbA, and trnL-F) also support the conclusion that V. malipoensis is a new species in section Ascocentropsis of Vanda s. l. and is sister to V. nana and this pair to V. christensoniana. Given the observed discrepancy between the plastid and nrITS results, hybridization may have been involved in the evolution of this set of species.