Cymbidium Morphological Description Of The Construction And Application Of The System

The Chinese Cymbidium have been bred as a kind of popular ornamental orchids for long history in China. Traditionally, the particular shape and color of sepals and petals were mostly treasured and highly valued. By then, a special appreciating habit of Chinese Cymbidium was formed. The morphological features of sepals and petals have been used to classify and value the variations of Chinese Cymbidium since MingQing era. Because the recording and describing of the Chinese Cymbidium variations was far early than the establishment of Western Botanical Science, a different set of description terminology has been developed during the long history of cultivations of Chinese Cymbidium. The outstanding features of those terminology are that the morphology of floral parts was depicted by drawing an analogy with the flowers of other plants, even with human organs. One disadvantage of this terminological system is that the same term could be explained differently in different territory. The other is that the system is very hard to be understood by a novice unless he had been guied by an expert of Chinese Cymbidium variation recognizing at least for three years. The biggest disadvantage of the system is that the terminological system is far beyond the ability to discriminate thousands of Chinese Cymbidium variations emerged recently. Therefore, it is very necesary to construct a new widely acceptable terminological system based on the modern botanical terminology.Following the introduction of traditional morphological description terminological system of Chinese Cymbidium, we systematically analysis the deficiency of the traditional morphological description terminological system and the actuality of the Chinese Cymbidium variation description terminological system. And then, we take 113 variations of the 7 terrestrial orchid species in Chinese Cymbidium as materials which include Cymbidium goeringii,C. faberi,C. ensifolium,C. sinense,C. kanran,C. tortisepalum and C. tongibracteatum to measure the character of them. First, we determine the qualitative character of the selected variations by direct observation. Second, we use ruler and vernier caliper to measure the quantitative character of the selected Chinese Cymbidium variations. Last, the universal colour chart of Royal Horticultural Society (RHS color chart) is used to fix the color spectrum of the selected Chinese Cymbidium variations. Through determining the plant shape, leafage shape, length and width of the leafage, nervure, edge of the leafage and the leafage color of the selected variations, we constructed the description terminological system of the leafage feature of the selected variations. Based on the observation and measurement of the color and shape character of sepal, petal, labellum, we integrated the universal botanical terminology and the accepted part of the traditional horticultural description terminology which lead no misunderstanding to construct the description terminological system that can be used to describe the flower feature of Chinese Cymbidium variations. After introducing the INTERNATIONAL CODE OF NOMENCLATURE FOR CULTIVATE PLANTS, we disscussed the contradiction between the traditional nomenclature of Chinese Cymbidium and the I.N.C.P. Furthermore, we reconstituted the nomenclature criterion of Chinese Cymbidium based on the I.C.N.C.P. So, the new constructed morphological description terminological system of Chinese Cymbidium include the nomenclature criterion of Chinese Cymbidium and the feature description terminological system of the plant and the flower.In order to validate the maneuverability and practicability of the new constructed description terminological system, we described the selected C. ensifolium variations of Chinese Cymbidium with the new system. The 42 variations of C. ensifolium were classified into 3 groups based on the difference of the flower color. They are yellow-green group, purple-red group and white group respectively. Classification search codes of C. ensifolium were established based on the two dimensional classification system. The new constructed description terminological system of Chinese Cymbidium was also used to describe the morphology of C. ensifolium. The results indicate that the new constructed description terminological system of the Chinese Cymbidium can scientifically and effectively exhibit the feature of Chinese Cymbidium variations and provide a standard for the classification and appreciation of Chinese Cymbidium. We consider that the new terminological system will promote the development of the Chinese Cymbidium horticulture industry and the exchange and trade in China, even in the world.