Barkeria Knowles & Westcott 1838

Identification key for Barkeria species 1. Stems forming fusiform pseudobulbs with a small peduncle, veins of the lip thickened, callus consisting of a basal laminar platform, column 2–5 mm long..........................................................................................................................................................................2 - Stems slightly thickened (reed-like), lip without prominent veins and lacking a laminar callus, column> 5 mm long ...................6 2. Pseudobulbs with abundant purple-reddish spots, column slightly less than half the size of the lip, tepals lilac-pink and arranged star-like, the lip and column descending .................................................................................. B. shoemakeri Halbinger (1975: 291) - Pseudobulbs green or suffused with purple, column small, occupying only the base of the lip, tepals yellow-cream or lilac-purple, arranged fan-like and approximately in the same plane of the lip and the column............................................................................3 3. Flowers yellow-cream, lip with abundant reddish spots and streaks, ovary without a prominent nectary.......................................... .......................................................................................................................... B. obovata (Presl 1827: 99) Christenson (1988: 221) - Flowers lilac-purple, lip with white or pink-magenta veins, ovary with a prominent nectary...........................................................4 4. Flowers lilac, odorless, veins of the lip white, margins of the lip wavy ............. B. palmeri (Rolfe 1893: 6) Schlechter (1918: 470) - Flowers pink-purple, fragrant, veins of the lip pink-magenta, margins of the lip smooth.................................................................5 5. Flowers <30 mm in diameter, nectary elongated, parallel to the ovary, fragrance delicate, sweet..................................................... ............................................................................................................ B. strophinx (Reichenbach 1877: 78) Halbinger (1977a: 248) - Flowers <50 mm in diameter, nectary globose, fragrance harsh.................. B. naevosa (Lindley 1846: 167) Schlechter (1923: 46) 6. Tepals lilac-pink, incurved, ovary with abundant reddish-purple spots .............................................................................................7 - Tepals pink to magenta, recurved, ovary the same color as the tepals.............................................................................................10 7. Scandent plants, lip with small magenta lines and faded yellow at the apex, with 3 erect keels, the central one bigger .................... ...................................................................................................................................................... B. dorotheae Halbinger (1976: 40) - Cespitosae plants, lip with a large magenta blotch, with 1–7 very low keels at the apex..................................................................8 8. Flowers <70 mm in diameter, column with small papillae on the ventral surface, wings extended over the lip.............. B. uniflora - Flowers <55 mm in diameter, column without papillae on the ventral surface, wings involute.......................................................9 9. Lateral sepals forming a flat angle, lateral margins of the lip directed downwards....................................................... B. barkeriola - Lateral sepals forming a right to obtuse angle, lateral margins of the lip extended.........................................................................10 10. Inflorescence a raceme, column oblong-elliptic................................................................................................................ B. wixarika - Inflorescence a double-raceme (panicle-like), column spatulate ...................................................................................... B. uruapani 11. Column fused to the lip for half of its length, keels of the lip decreasing longitudinally .................................................................... ....................................................................................... B. skinneri (Bateman ex Lindley 1836: 1881) Lindley ex Paxton (1849: 1) - Column fused to the lip for less than a quarter of its length, the keels of the lip forming 3 ridges at the apex, the central one bigger................................................................................................................................................................................................12 12. Lip strongly reduplicate, column up to 10 mm ................................................................................................................................13 - Lip extended, margins slightly reflexed, column more than 10 mm ................................................................................................15 13. Lip cordate, divergent to the column...................................... B. whartoniana (Schweinfurth 1948: 316) Soto Arenas (1993a: 240) - Lip oblong-elliptic, appressed to the column ...................................................................................................................................14 14. Wings of the column curved, inflorescence of simultaneous anthesis, flowering from the growing stem .......................................... ................................................................................................................................. B. melanocaulon Richard & Galeotti (1845: 22) - Wings of the column extended, inflorescence of successive anthesis, flowering the mature stem...................................................... ................................................................................................................................. B. fritz-halbingeriana Soto Arenas (1993b: 245) 15. Flowers pale lilac, lip with abundant purple spots, peduncle of the inflorescence short, flowering during Spring............................. ..................................................................................................................................... B. spectabilis Bateman ex Lindley (1842: 43) - Flowers pink to magenta, the lip concolorous with a contrasted cream-white area, peduncle of the inflorescence elongated, flowering during Summer-Autumn ..................................................................................................................................................16 16. Flowers dark magenta, wings of the column short, without spots ....................................................................................................... ....................................... B. scandens (Lexarza in La Llave & Lexarza 1825: 28) Dressler & Halbinger in Halbinger (1977a: 247) - Flowers pink to magenta, the lip with a darker region in the apical third, wings of the column broad, with abundant purple spots. Plants not restricted to the area mentioned above ............................................................................................................................17 17. Plants scandent or creeping, predominantly lithophytic....................................................... B. vanneriana Reichenbach (1885: 678) - Plants caespitose or slightly scandent, predominantly epiphytic .................................. B. lindleyana Bateman ex Lindley (1842: 2)