华白及 hua bai ji

Arethusa sinensis Rolfe, J. Linn. Soc., Bot. 36: 46. 1903; Bletilla chinensis Schlechter; Jimensia sinensis (Rolfe) Garay & R. E. Schultes.

Plants 15-20 cm tall. Rhizome subglobose, 1-1.5 cm in diam. Stem short, to ca. 3 cm, stout, enclosed by leaf bases and tubular sheaths, 2- or 3-leaved. Leaves basal, elliptic-lanceolate, 5-12 × 0.8-3 cm, base contracted into amplexicaul sheath, apex acute or acuminate. Peduncle 7-15 cm, slender, with 1 short sheathing bract; rachis flexuous, 1-2 cm, simple, 1-3-flowered; floral bracts often deciduous at anthesis, oblong-lanceolate, 5-8 mm, usually much shorter than ovary, apex acute. Flowers suberect or nodding, pale purple; pedicel and ovary twisted, 7-9 mm. Sepals white, tinged with purple, linear-lanceolate, 11-13 × ca. 3 mm, apex subacute. Petals white, tinged with purple, lanceolate, 11-13 × 3-3.5 mm, apex acute; lip white, with small purplish spots and purple apex, narrowly rhombic-obovate, obscurely 3-lobed near apex to almost entire, concave, 11-13 × 5-6 mm, apical margin irregularly fimbriate-serrulate; disk with 3 longitudinal fimbriate lamellae. Column cylindric, 8-9 mm, slender, dilated toward apex; rostellum large. Fl. May-Jun.

Forests. S Yunnan [Myanmar, Thailand].