大花鹤顶兰 da hua he ding lan

Phaius magniflorus Z. H. Tsi & S. C. Chen.

Plants to 100 cm tall (occasionally taller). Pseudobulb fusiform or cylindric-ovoid, 10-14 × 4.5-5.7 cm. Leaves ca. 4; blade green, oblong-elliptic, 49-70 × 15-24 cm, glabrous, apex acuminate. Inflorescences arising from lower nodes of pseudobulb, ca. as tall as or taller than height of leaves, to 100 cm, more than 10-flowered, glabrous; floral bracts caducous, ovate-lanceolate, ca. 6 cm, glabrous. Flowers widely opening, to 14 cm in diam.; pedicel and ovary ca. 5.5 cm, glabrous; sepals and petals yellow-green outside, inside brown-red with yellow-green at apex, petals densely brownish red spotted above middle. Sepals subsimilar, oblong-lanceolate, ca. 7 × 1.5 cm, glabrous, apex shortly acuminate. Petals oblong-lanceolate, ca. 6.3 × 1.2 cm, apex shortly acuminate; lip red with yellow stripes toward base, white at entrance turning cream-yellow with age, ca. 5.5 × 5.3 cm, broadly ovate-triangular, shallowly 3-lobed; lateral lobes short, margin slightly undulate, apex rounded; mid-lobe ovate-triangular, margin slightly undulate, apex acute; disk with yellow veins; spur yellow, narrowly cylindric, bowlike, 1-2 cm, apex unequally 2-lobed or unlobed. Column pale yellowish green, ca. 2 cm, pubescent on dorsal surface in upper half; rostellum ligulate; anther cap yellowish white. Fl. May-Jun.

Shaded and damp places in forests or along valleys; 700-1000 m. Hong Kong, Xizang, S Yunnan [Bhutan, NE India, Vietnam].