Chelonistele laetitia-reginae, a new orchid species from Sarawak

The revision of the genus Chelonistele in Orchid Monographs 1 (1986) 23-40 lists 11 species and 4 variations. All occur in Borneo, which is evidently the centre of speciation of this genus; only Chelonistele sulphurea var. sulphurea occurs in addition in Java, Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula. During joint fieldwork in 1991 with staff of the Sarawak Herbarium in the Hose Mountains, Sarawak, the present author collected herbarium and live specimens of many orchids. Among the live orchids were quite a number of Chelonistele species from different habitats. Fifteen of these, belonging to six species, flowered in the Leiden Hortus Botanicus. Two are common and are well known from many herbarium specimens: C. sulphurea var. sulphurea and C. amplissima. Three were in 1986 known by a few specimens only: C. inglorio (7 specimens), C. unguiculata (3), and C. brevilamelluta (20). One species, in the field represented by a few specimens, appeared to be new to science, and is described here.