Meliorchis
Sign in to saveMeliorchis caribea is an extinct, early to middle Miocene orchid known only from a packet of pollen attached to the wing of a stingless bee, Proplebeia dominicana, trapped in Dominican amber. It was the first fossil orchid ever described, and allowed for a revised estimate of the time of origin of the Orchidaceae to the Mesozoic. Morphology of the pollinium suggests that M. caribea is closely related to the modern genus Ligeophila.
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- taxon
- Parent taxon
- Goodyerinae
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- genus
- taxon name
- Meliorchis
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Meliorchis caribea is an extinct, early to middle Miocene orchid known only from a packet of pollen attached to the wing of a stingless bee, Proplebeia dominicana, trapped in Dominican amber. It was the first fossil orchid ever described, and allowed for a revised estimate of the time of origin of the Orchidaceae to the Mesozoic. Morphology of the pollinium suggests that M. caribea is closely related to the modern genus Ligeophila.
== References ==
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Meliorchis” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.