华西杓兰 hua xi shao lan

Cypripedium cheniae Torelli.

Plants 20-30 cm tall, with a stout, short rhizome. Stem erect, nearly glabrous, with several sheaths at base and often 2 leaves above. Leaf blade elliptic or ovate-elliptic, 6-9 × 2.5-3.5 cm, glabrous, minutely ciliate, apex acute or shortly acuminate. Inflorescence terminal, with 1 flower; peduncle pubescent toward apex; floral bracts foliaceous, narrowly ovate-elliptic or ovate, 3.5-5 × 1-1.5 cm, glabrous, apex acuminate; pedicel and ovary ca. 2.5 cm, slightly glandular hairy. Flower fragrant; sepals and petals greenish yellow, marked with maroon longitudinal stripes or also spots; lip waxy yellow, with maroon spots inside. Dorsal sepal ovate or ovate-elliptic, 3-3.5 × ca. 1.5 cm, abaxially sparsely shortly hairy on veins, apex acuminate; synsepal ovate-lanceolate, ca. as long as dorsal sepal, ca. 1.1 cm wide, abaxially slightly puberulent, apex shallowly 2-lobed. Petals lanceolate, 3-4 × 0.6-0.7 cm, pubescent toward adaxial base and on abaxial midvein, apex acuminate; lip deeply pouched, urceolate, 2.5-3.3 × 1.5-2 cm, with a dilated mouth grooved-toothed along margin. Staminode suboblong-ovate, ca. 10 × 5 mm, base subsessile. Fl. Jun.

● Stony grasslands, shaded cliffs in open forests; 2600-3400 m. S Gansu, Guizhou, NW and W Sichuan, NW Yunnan.

"Cypripedium zhongdianense" (Z. D. Fang, Wild Fl. Hengduan Mts. 209. 1993) belongs here but was not validly published because no Latin description or diagnosis was provided (Vienna Code, Art. 36.1).

Cypripedium ×wenqingiae Perner (Orchidee (Hamburg) 49: 201. 1998), described from Wenchuan, Sichuan, is a natural hybrid between C. farreri and C. tibeticum.