峨眉春蕙 e mei chun hui

Cymbidium faberi Rolfe var. omeiense (Y. S. Wu & S. C. Chen) Y. S. Wu & S. C. Chen.

Plants terrestrial, autotrophic. Pseudobulbs indistinct. Leaves 4 or 5, lorate, 15-30(-35) × 0.6-1 cm, subleathery, without transparent veins, not articulate toward base, margin slightly serrulate, apex acuminate. Inflorescence subbasal, slightly arching or curved, 15-17 cm; peduncle with 4-6 sheaths 5-25 mm; rachis laxly 3- or 4-flowered; floral bracts linear-lanceolate, 15-25 × 2-4 mm. Flowers fragrant, appearing twice per year, ca. 5 cm in diam.; pedicel and ovary 15-25 mm; sepals and petals pale yellow-green, sepals with a purplish red midvein in basal half, petals with purplish red spots; lip pale yellow-green with a central narrowly cordate purplish red patch; column yellowish with purplish red stripes on ventral surface. Sepals linear-lanceolate, 25-30 × 3-5 mm, apex acuminate. Petals rhombic-lanceolate, oblique, 16-18 × 3-4 mm, apex acuminate; lip ovate, ca. 20 mm, not fused to basal margins of column, 3-lobed near middle; lateral lobes erect, suborbicular; mid-lobe recurved, ovate, ca. 11 × 8 mm; disk minutely papillate, with 2 arcuate, glabrous lamellae. Column ca. 11 mm; pollinia 4, in 2 pairs. Fl. Mar-Apr.

● SC Sichuan (Emei Shan).

On further study, this taxon might well prove to be of hybrid origin, probably with Cymbidium tortisepalum being one of its parents.