细花兰 xi hua lan

Plants terrestrial, autotrophic. Pseudobulbs narrowly ovoid, 1-1.5 × 0.6-0.8 cm, enclosed in leaf bases. Leaves 1-4, suberect, lorate or linear-lanceolate, 7-22 × 0.5-0.8 cm, leathery, articulate toward base, apex acuminate. Inflorescence lateral, suberect, 8-10 cm, slender; peduncle with many sheaths; sheaths greenish, with brownish red venation, 1.5-1.8 cm; rachis slightly zigzag, 2-2.5 cm, 2- or 3-flowered; floral bracts green, with purple-red venation, lanceolate, 4-5 mm. Flowers rather small, 2-3 cm in diam.; pedicel and ovary 10-15 mm, greenish, with purple-red stripes; sepals purple-brown with deeper-colored venation; petals pale yellow-green with purple-red venation; lip yellowish white, mottled with purplish red. Sepals narrowly elliptic-oblong, 15-17 × 3-4 mm, apex acute and incurved; lateral sepals oblique. Petals narrowly elliptic, 13-15 × 6-7 mm, loosely embracing column, apex acute; lip subovate, 13-15 × 11-12 mm, not fused to basal margins of column, obscurely 3-lobed, apical margins slightly crisped, apex obtuse and incurved; disk with 2 fleshy lamellae ca. 6 mm. Column slightly arcuate, 10-12 mm; pollinia 4, in 2 pairs. Fl. Dec.

● Shrubby and rocky slopes; ca. 1500 m. SE Yunnan (Maguan).

This is another species based upon a specimen with apparently underdeveloped flowers, in which the flowers have not opened fully and the lip remains bent around the column apex. Further investigation, including exploring any possible relationship to the sympatric Cymbidium kanran, is needed.