美花兰 mei hua lan

Cyperorchis insignis (Rolfe) Schlechter.

Plants terrestrial or lithophytic, autotrophic. Pseudobulbs ovoid or narrowly ovoid, slightly bilaterally flattened, 5-9 × 2.5-4 cm, enclosed in leaf bases. Leaves 6-9, lorate, 60-90 × 0.7-1.2 cm, articulate 7.5-10 cm from base, apex acuminate. Inflorescence suberect or arching, 28-90 cm or longer, somewhat robust; rachis 4-9- or more flowered; floral bracts subtriangular, 3-5 mm, though lower ones 11-15 mm. Flowers not scented, 6-7 cm in diam.; pedicel and ovary 30-40 mm; sepals and petals white or pinkish, sometimes with red spots at base; lip white, often with purplish red spots and striations particularly on lateral lobes, and with a central yellow patch on mid-lobe. Sepals elliptic-obovate, concave, 30-35 × 10-14 mm, apex acute; lateral sepals spreading horizontally or nearly so, slightly oblique. Petals spreading, narrowly obovate, 28-30 × 10-12 mm, apex acute; lip subovate, slightly shorter than petals, base fused to basal margins of column for 2-3 mm, 3-lobed; lateral lobes inconspicuously ciliate; mid-lobe slightly recurved, ovate, margin crisped, apex acute; disk minutely papillate, mid-lobe with a densely hairy patch at center, with 3 lamellae; lamellae densely pubescent, lateral lamellae extending from base of lip to base of mid-lobe and inflated at their apices, central one shorter. Column arcuate, 24-28 mm, winged, puberulent at base on ventral surface; pollinia 2, triangular to subsquare. Fl. Nov-Dec. 2n = 40.

Rocky and grassy places in open forests, shaded and mossy cliffs; 1700-1900 m. E Hainan [N Thailand, Vietnam].