蛇舌兰 she she lan

Cottonia championii Lindley ex Bentham, Hooker’s J. Bot. Kew Gard. Misc. 7: 35. 1855; Diploprora bicaudata (Thwaites) Schlechter; D. championii var. uraiensis (Hayata) S. S. Ying; D. kusukusensis Hayata; D. uraiensis Hayata; Luisia bicaudata Thwaites; Stauropsis championii (Lindley ex Bentham) Tang & F. T. Wang; S. kusukusensis (Hayata) Tang & F. T. Wang.

Stems often pendulous, 3-15 cm or longer, ca. 4 mm in diam., rigid, usually unbranched, internodes 1-1.5 cm. Leaf sessile, falcate-lanceolate or obliquely oblong, 5-12 × 1.6-2.7 cm, papery, jointed, margin sometimes slightly undulate, apex acute to apiculate. Inflorescences laxly 4-8-flowered; peduncle 1.5-2.8 cm, sheathed at base, glabrous; rachis ca. 3.5 cm, winged, weakly zigzag; floral bracts ovate-triangular, 3-4 mm, acute. Flowers fragrant, pale yellow, with white-rosy lip, ca. 1 cm in diam., slightly fleshy; pedicel and ovary ca. 8 mm. Sepals oblong or elliptic, ca. 9 × 4 mm, dorsally carinate, apex obtuse. Petals linear-oblong, ca. 8 × 2 mm, acute; lip sigmoidally curved, 5-8 × 3-4 mm, adnate to base and sides of column; hypochile erect, cymbiform, ca. 5 × 4 mm, edges recurved; epichile broadly triangular at base, narrowed abruptly to a bicaudate apex; disk with an erect keel. Column ca. 3 mm, broad, foot absent. Capsule cylindric, ca. 4 cm × 8-10 mm. Fl. and fr. Feb-Sep. 2n = 16, 38.

Epiphytic on tree trunks in forests or lithophytic on rocks along valleys; 200-1500 m. S Fujian, Guangxi, Hong Kong, Taiwan, S and SE Yunnan [India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam].