椰香兰 ye xiang lan

Cymbidium pendulum (Roxburgh) Swartz var. atropurpureum Lindley, Gard. Chron. 1854: 287. 1854; C. atropurpureum var. olivaceum J. J. Smith; C. finlaysonianum Wallich ex Lindley var. atropurpureum (Lindley) Veitch; C. pendulum var. purpureum W. Watson.

Plants epiphytic or rarely lithophytic, autotrophic. Pseudobulb ovoid, often weakly inflated, bilaterally flattened, to 10 × 6 cm, enclosed in persistent leaf bases and ca. 4 scarious cataphylls. Leaves usually 7-9, arching, ligulate, to 50-90(-125) × 1.5-4 cm, leathery, rigid, articulate to a broadly sheathing base to 15-20 cm, apex obtuse and unequally bilobed; shortest leaves reduced to cataphylls with an abscission zone near apex and a short blade. Inflorescence arising from within cataphylls, arching or pendulous, 28-75 cm; peduncle 5-16 cm, covered basally by 6-8 overlapping, cymbiform, acute, spreading sheaths to 7 cm; rachis pendulous, pale green, often flushed with purple, 20-55 cm, (7-)10-33-flowered; floral bracts triangular, 1-4 mm. Flowers usually coconut-scented, 3.5-4.5 cm in diam.; pedicel and ovary 15-26 mm, pale green, often flushed with purple; sepals deep maroon to dull yellow-green, strongly stained maroon; lip white, becoming yellow with age, lateral lobes stained maroon-purple, mid-lobe yellow in front of callus ridges and with maroon blotches; callus ridges bright yellow toward apex, stained maroon below; column deep maroon, sometimes paler at apex, anther cap white or pale yellow. Dorsal sepal spreading, suberect, narrowly ligulate-elliptic, 28-33 × 7-10 mm, margin revolute, apex obtuse; lateral sepals pendulous, similar, falcate, oblique. Petals weakly porrect, narrowly elliptic, 25-30 × 7.5-11 mm, margins sometimes revolute, apex obtuse or subacute; lip 21-25 × 13-15 mm when flattened, not fused to basal margins of column, 3-lobed, usually broadest across mid-lobe; lateral lobes erect, much shorter than column, apices obtuse and appearing truncate; mid-lobe weakly recurved, broadly ovate to rhombic, 11-13 × 13-14 mm, margin entire, apex obtuse to emarginate; disk minutely papillose to minutely pubescent (hairs longest on tips of lateral lobes), with a callus of 2 sigmoid raised ridges rounded and confluent at their apices and merging gradually with base of mid-lobe. Column arcuate, 16-18 × ca. 3.5 mm, winged; pollinia 2, triangular, 2-2.5 mm, deeply cleft, borne on a broadly triangular viscidium, tapering to acuminate apices. Fl. Mar-May.

Forks of forest trees, occasionally on rocks, evergreen and riverine forests; sea level to 1200 m. Hainan [Indonesia (Borneo, Java, Sumatra), Malaysia, Philippines, S Thailand, S Vietnam].

Cymbidium atropurpureum may be a naturalized species in China. The present authors have seen no Chinese specimens in any herbarium; nor have they seen any living plants in the wild, although one of us (Cribb) has seen a photograph by Gloria Siu of a wild plant of C. atropurpureum in Hainan. The species was misidentified as C. bicolor subsp. obtusum (a synonym of C. mannii in the present treatment) in S. Y. Ding and J. M. Yin (Ill. Wild Orchids Hainan Island, 36. 2005).