Ludisia ravanii untold
November 10, 2007- While admiring a population of Crepidium bancanoides on the forest floor in a national park in eastern Luzon, I heard one of my companions, Ernie Alvaran, summoning me. " Ludisia !" he yelled. When he said the word I knew we're onto something. Merlin Sy, another companion, found more plants. During this time, the genus Ludisia was monotypic, or consisting of only one species, L. discolor . The species is widespread and occurs from India eastwards to Indochina and southwards to Indonesia. There is a record from Palawan but it seems that no one has found the plants since. So if what Ernie found was L. discolor , then that would be the first record of this species occurring on Luzon. While taking photos of some of the plants, which were sterile, Ernie told me that earlier that month he saw and bought a few plants that were said to have come from central Luzon, bearing the same small leaves of the plants before us. At that moment I was thinking of ...