金蝉兰 jin chan lan

Plants epiphytic, autotrophic. Pseudobulbs ellipsoid-ovoid or narrowly ovoid, 5-10 × 3-5 cm, enclosed in leaf bases. Leaves distinctly distichous at base, 6-11, lorate, 70-90 × 2-3 cm, leathery, articulate 8-11 cm from base, apex acuminate. Inflorescence arising from within sheaths at base of pseudobulb, suberect or arching, 65-100 cm, rather slender, with 8-10 sheaths below middle; sheaths to 15 cm; rachis 30-40 cm, usually 8-10-flowered; floral bracts ovate-triangular, 3-5 mm. Flowers 7-8 cm in diam.; pedicel and ovary green, 15-38 mm; sepals and petals yellow-green or olive-green, sometimes with indistinct pale red-brown venation; lip yellow or sometimes cream-white with irregular yellow dashes and spots. Dorsal sepal narrowly obovate-oblong, 40-60 × 13-16 mm, apex acute; lateral sepals narrowly oblong, oblique, 34-50 × 12-15 mm, apex acute. Petals narrowly oblong, falcate, 37-56 × 6-9 mm, apex acute; lip subelliptic, 30-32 × 17-18 mm, base fused to basal margins of column for ca. 3 mm, 3-lobed; lateral lobes erect, subovate, minutely hairy on veins, margins strongly crisped and golden ciliate; mid-lobe recurved, broadly ovate, 8-10 × 8-10 mm, margin strongly crisped; disk sparsely hairy toward base, with 2 central lamellae bearing long hairs 1-3 mm and with a third, shorter row of hairs 1-3 mm between lamellae which merges with 2 other rows on mid-lobe. Column 30-38 mm, wings ca. 1.5 mm wide. Fl. Sep-Dec.

● Trees in forests; ca. 1500 m. W Yunnan (Baoshan: Gaoligong Shan).

This taxon is an albinistic form. It may be of hybrid origin or is possibly a form of Cymbidium tracyanum. It is somewhat intermediate in its floral and vegetative morphology between C. tracyanum and C. erythraeum, having the lip shape and callus type of the former and the leaf type, flower size, and petal shape of the latter. The latter is often found as an albinistic form in Gaoligong Shan. Further study is needed to establish the nature of C. gaoligongense.