莎草兰 suo cao lan

Plants epiphytic or lithophytic, autotrophic. Pseudobulbs subovoid, bilaterally flattened, 4-9 × 2-3 cm, enclosed in persistent leaf bases. Leaves 6-16, distichous, lorate, 45-80 × 1-1.7(-2) cm, articulate 4-10 cm from base, apex acuminate or obtuse and usually slightly 2-lobed. Inflorescence arising from lower part of pseudobulb, usually arching, 40-50 cm; rachis pendulous or nodding, centrifugal or centripetal, densely 18-35-flowered; floral bracts small, 2-3 mm. Flowers slightly fragrant, pendulous, narrowly bell-shaped, not opening widely; pedicel and ovary 12-21 mm; sepals and petals cream-yellow to pale yellowish green, sometimes tinged pale pink; lip cream-yellow to pale yellowish green, occasionally with reddish spots, lamellae bright orange. Sepals narrowly obovate-lanceolate, 34-43 × 7-11 mm, apex acute. Petals broadly linear-oblanceolate, 30-40 × 5-8 mm, apex obtuse; lip oblanceolate-triangular, 30-40 × 4-8 mm, base fused to basal margins of column for 2-3 mm, 3-lobed; lateral lobes loosely clasping column, not ciliate; mid-lobe small, 6-10 × 5-8 mm, margin slightly undulate, apex slightly bilobed and incurved; disk minutely papillate on lateral lobes and densely pubescent at center of mid-lobe, with 2 longitudinal lamellae extending from base of lip to near base of mid-lobe; lamellae sparsely pubescent, convergent at their apices and with a longitudinal channel between them, sometimes each lamella with a lanceolate appendage 3-5 mm on outside below middle. Column 28-32 mm, puberulent toward base, narrowly winged; pollinia 2, subclavate-obovoid.

Trees in forests, cliffs; 1700-2800 m. SW Sichuan, SE Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, N Vietnam].

Lower Taxa

• Cymbidium elegans var. elegans
• Cymbidium elegans var. lushuiense (Z. J. Liu, S. C. Chen & X. C. Shi) Z. J. Liu & S. C. Chen