直立山珊瑚 zhi li shan shan hu

Plants 1-3 m tall. Rhizome 3-5 cm in diam., branched, nodes with many triangular scales. Stem erect, brownish, lower part almost glabrous, upper part sparsely and shortly rusty hairy. Panicle composed of terminal and lateral racemes; raceme (5-)10-20 cm; peduncle and rachis ± shortly tomentose; floral bracts ovate to narrowly elliptic, 1-2 cm, often vertical to rachis, abaxially shortly rusty tomentose; pedicel and ovary 2-2.8 cm, densely rusty tomentose. Flowers bright yellow. Sepals elliptic-oblong, 2.2-3 × 1-1.5 cm, abaxially shortly rusty tomentose. Petals slightly narrower than sepals, glabrous; lip broadly ovate or orbicular, ca. 2 × 1.6-1.8 cm, adaxially densely papillate-hairy especially near margin, unlobed, concave, basal part ± embracing column, near base narrowed and forming a small sac, margin fimbriate and undulate-toothed. Column 7-8 mm. Capsule more than 10 cm. Fl. Jun-Jul. 2n = 30.

Open places in forests, bamboo forests, sunny slopes; 800-2300 m. Anhui, S Hunan, Taiwan [Bhutan, India, Thailand].

The plants of Anhui, Hunan, and Taiwan are similar to each other but show some differences from the Himalayan plants, in which the lip is slightly 3-lobed and petals denticulate along margins. We follow H. J. Su in treating this entity as Galeola falconeri here, but further investigation is needed.