小小斑叶兰 xiao xiao ban ye lan

Goodyera shixingensis K. Y. Lang.

Plants terrestrial, 8-11 cm tall. Rhizome slender, few noded. Stem ascending, 3-4 cm, 3-5-leaved. Leaves spaced along stem, abaxially green, adaxially green with white reticulate venation and occasionally with a white band along midvein, ovate to oblong-lanceolate, 1.5-5 × 0.9-2 cm, base rounded, apex acute; petiole-like base and tubular sheath 0.5-1 cm. Peduncle red or reddish brown, 2-4 cm, sparsely pubescent, with 2 or 3 sterile bracts; rachis 2-4 cm, subdensely many flowered, subsecund; floral bracts ovate-lanceolate, 6-7.5 × ca. 3.2 mm, basal margin denticulate, apex acuminate. Flowers barely opening, white, small; pedicel and ovary reddish brown, cylindric-fusiform, 5.5-7 mm, glabrous. Sepals glabrous, 1-veined; dorsal sepal white, tinged reddish brown at apex, elliptic, 3-3.8 × 2.2-2.5 mm, concave, apex obtuse; lateral sepals pale reddish brown, tinged white at apex, ovate, oblique, 4-4.5 × 2-2.8 mm, apex obtuse. Petals white, rhombic-oblanceolate, oblique, ca. 3 × 1 mm, glabrous, 1-veined, apical margin dentic-ulate, apex obtuse; lip ovate, 4-5 × ca. 4 mm, fleshy; hypochile deeply concave-saccate, ca. 3 × 3.5 mm, inside densely papillose; epichile subsquare, ca. 1.5 mm, margin irregularly denticulate, not recurved, apex often involute. Column ca. 1.5 mm; anther deltoid-obovoid; rostellum remnant deeply bifid. Fl. Jul-Sep.

● Damp shaded places in forests; 300-1000 m. Guangdong, N Taiwan.

This species is very similar to Goodyera pusilla Blume from Indonesia and Malaysia; the two need to be critically compared.