Biermannia longicheila (Orchidaceae, Aeridinae), a new species from southern Vietnam

Biermannia King & Pantling (1898a: 591) comprises about ten species distributed from northeastern India and southern China through the Indochinese and Malay Peninsulas to Sumatra, Java and Borneo (Comber 1990, 2001, Seidenfaden & Wood 1992, Pearce & Cribb 2002, Chen & Wood 2009, Chase et al. 2015). All species of this genus are miniature, canopy epiphytes with small, unattractive fugacious flowers lasting only few hours in the morning. As a result, representatives of this genus are easily overlooked in botanical surveys, poorly represented in herbaria and remain infrequently inventoried in local floras throughout its range. One more new species that differs strikingly from all hitherto known species of this genus was recently discovered in southern Vietnam. Here we describe and illustrate this unusual plant.