Three new species of Taeniophyllum Blume 
(Orchidaceae) from northern Queensland 
B. Gray 
Summary 
Gray, B. (2015). Three new species of Taeniophyllum Blume (Orchidaceae) from northern Queensland. 
Austrobaileya 9(3): 382-392. Three diminutive, leafless orchids of the genus Taeniophyllum are 
described as new from northern Queensland, increasing the total species enumerated from mainland 
Australia to eight, namely T. clementsii (D.L.Jones & B.Gray) Kocyan & Schuit., T. confertum 
B.Gray & D.L.Jones, T. epacridicola B.Gray sp. nov., T. explanatum B.Gray sp. nov., T. lobatum 
Dockrill, T. malianum Schltr., T. muelleri Lindl. ex Benth. and T. triquetroradix B.Gray sp. nov. A 
key to the mainland Australian Taeniophyllum species is provided. All inflorescences of the mainland 
Australian taxa are also illustrated and provided here for comparison purposes and compliment the 
key. Line drawings, photographs and distribution maps for the three newly described species are 
given. 
Key Words: Orchidaceae, Taeniophyllum , Taeniophyllum epacridicola , Taeniophyllum explanatum , 
Taeniophyllum triquetroradix , Australia flora, Queensland flora, new species, taxonomy, 
identification key 
B. Gray, Australian Tropical Herbarium, James Cook University, Cairns Campus, McGregor Road, 
Smithfield, Queensland 4878, Australia. 
Introduction 
Taeniophyllum Blume is a diverse group of 
small, epiphytic orchids with 229 species 
widely distributed from Africa through 
India to Japan southwards through the Malay 
Archipelago to New Guinea, Australia and 
extending east to New Caledonia and Tahiti, 
with the centre of distribution in New Guinea 
(Schlechter 1982; Seidenfaden & Wood 
1992; Margonska & Szlachetko 2010). In 
Australia, six species are enumerated, namely 
T. confertum B.Gray & D.L. Jones, T. lobatum 
Dockrill, T. malianum Schltr., T. muelleri 
Lindl. ex Benth., T. norfolkianum D.L. Jones, 
B.Gray & M.A.Clements and T. pusillum 
(Willd.) Seidenf. & Ormerod (formerly T. 
obtusum Blume; see Seidenfaden 1995) 
(Gray & Jones 1984; Lavarack & Gray 1985; 
Clements 1989; Dockrill 1992; Ormerod 1994; 
Jones 2006; Jones et al. 2006). However, two 
of the six species recorded occur on off shore 
islands, namely T. norfolkianum on Norfolk 
Island (Jones et al. 2006) and T. pusillum on 
Accepted for publication 24 August 2015 
Christmas Island (Clements 1989) and are not 
included in this paper. 
Based on recent molecular findings, 
Kocyan & Schuiteman (2014) combined 
Microtatorchis Schltr. with Taeniophyllum , 
and in doing so, Microtatorchis clementsii 
D.L.Jones & B.Gray was transferred to 
Taeniophyllum clementsii (D.L. Jones & 
B.Gray) Kocyan & Schuit., bringing the 
number of Taeniophyllum species recognised 
for mainland Australia up to five. 
Generally, all the Australian 
Taeniophyllum species are small, leafless or 
with minute scale like leaves covering the 
stem. They have diminutive flowers, usually 
bearing only one, rarely two, at a time on a 
peduncle. The inflorescence is a raceme, often 
with continuous growth, producing flowers 
over a long period. 
Observations have been carried out by the 
author over a period of some years, and have 
led to the discovery of these three novelties 
described here as T. epacridicola B.Gray sp. 
nov., T. explanatum B.Gray sp. nov. and T. 
triquetroradix B.Gray sp. nov. Two of these, 
