春天麻 chun tian ma

Plants 7-12 cm tall. Rhizome flexuous, cylindric, slender. Peduncle pale brown, to ca. 10 cm, with 3 or 4 amplexicaul sheaths below middle; sheaths 6-7 mm; rachis ca. 2 cm, 1-3-flowered; floral bracts ca. 3.5 × 3 mm, apex acute. Flowers spreading or nodding, resupinate, opening widely, dark brown, fleshy; pedicel and ovary dark brown, ca. 15 mm; pedicel elongating to ca. 17 cm in fruit. Perianth tube campanulate, ca. 17 × 18 mm, outer surface verrucose; free portion of sepals broadly ovate-triangular, ca. 6 × 7-9 mm, dorsal one concave at apex, lateral ones obtuse at apex and wider than dorsal one; free portion of petals ovate, ca. 4 × 3.5 mm, apex acute; lip simple, ovate or rhombic, 6.5-7.5 × 5-6 mm, fleshy, glabrous, base shortly clawed, lateral margins erect, apex cuspidate; claw with a pair of small, oblong, verrucose calli; disk with 6-8 parallel ridges, central 2 terminating in raised, fleshy red calli at apex of lip. Column ca. 8 mm, narrowly winged, with a pair of toothlike projections at apex, white, tinged reddish brown toward base; column foot short. Capsule cylindric, ca. 30 mm, papillate. Fl. and fr. Feb.

● Bamboo forests. N Taiwan.