垂花兰 chui hua lan

Cymbidium babae (Kudô ex Masamune) Masamune; C. kanran Makino var. babae (Kudô ex Masamune) S. S. Ying; Cyperorchis babae Kudô ex Masamune; C. cochlearis (Lindley) Bentham.

Plants epiphytic, autotrophic. Pseudobulbs often fusiform, slightly bilaterally flattened, 3-5 × 1-1.5 cm, enclosed in persistent leaf bases. Leaves 9-16(-18), distichous, lorate, 40-60(-100) × 0.8-1(-1.2) cm, articulate 3-5 cm from base, margin slightly revolute, apex acuminate. Inflorescence lateral, pendulous, 50-60 cm; peduncle dark brown, slender, with several widely spaced sheaths 10-12 cm; rachis centrifugal, 13-16(-22)-flowered; floral bracts whitish, ca. 3 mm. Flowers pendulous, bell-shaped, not opening widely; pedicel and ovary 10-18 mm; sepals and petals tawny-brown; lip yellow-green, with dense, small, purple-red spots. Sepals oblanceolate-spatulate, 40-42 × 6-7 mm, apex acute. Petals oblanceolate, 40-42 × 5-6 mm, apex acute; lip obovate, ca. 43 × 26 mm, base fused to basal margins of column for 2-3 mm, 3-lobed; lateral lobes erect and clasping column, triangular, 10-12 mm wide; mid-lobe deflexed, suborbicular, 7-7.5 mm, margin undulate; disk with a dense patch of short hairs at center of mid-lobe, with 2 lamellae; lamellae inflated and white hairy toward apex. Column ca. 35 mm, slender; pollinia 2, deeply cleft. Fl. Nov-Jan. 2n = 40.

Trees in forests; 300-1800 m. Taiwan, SW Yunnan [India, Myanmar, N Vietnam].