高原舌唇兰 gao yuan she chun lan

Platanthera elachyantha Tang & F. T. Wang.

Plants 15-25 cm tall. Rootstock tuberous, fusiform, ca. 1.5 cm. Stem erect or ascending, with a tubular sheath at base, 1- or rarely 2-leaved. Leaf basal, elliptic to oblong-elliptic, 2.5-10 × 0.7-3.5 cm, base sheathing, apex obtuse or acute. Peduncle slender, with 1 or 2 small, foliaceous bracts; rachis 2-10 cm, laxly 3-10-flowered; floral bracts lanceolate, 8-22 mm, apex acuminate. Flowers pale yellowish green; pedicel and ovary slightly arcuate, cylindric-fusiform, 6-7 mm. Dorsal sepal erect, forming a hood with petals, narrowly oblong, 3.5-4.5 × 1.2-1.8 mm, 1- or 3-veined, margin ciliate, apex obtuse; lateral sepals reflexed, narrowly oblong, oblique, 4-5 × 1.5-1.8 mm, 1- or 3-veined, margin ciliate, apex slightly obtuse. Petals erect, narrowly triangular-lanceolate, oblique, 3.5-5 × 1-1.5 mm, fleshy, apex obtuse; lip slightly recurved, ligulate to ligulate-lanceolate, 3.8-5 × ca. 1.3 mm, thickened, entire, apex obtuse; spur pendulous, slightly incurved, cylindric, 8-10 mm, ca. as long as or exceeding ovary, somewhat dilated toward apex, apex obtuse. Column short; staminodes suborbicular, small; anther locules parallel; connective very narrow; pollinia obovoid, with short caudicles and narrowly oblong viscidia; rostellum rather small; stigma lobes separate, raised, elliptic, extending on either side of mouth of spur. Capsule ovoid. Fl. Aug-Sep.

Alpine and subalpine meadows, scrub; 3300-4500 m. W Sichuan, SE Xizang, NW Yunnan (Dêqên, Gongshan, Zhongdian) [Bhutan, India (Sikkim), Nepal].