褐花杓兰 he hua shao lan

Cypripedium smithii Schlechter.

Plants 15-45 cm tall, with a stout, rather short rhizome. Stem erect, usually glabrous, with several sheaths at base and 3 or 4 leaves above. Leaf blade elliptic, 5-16.5 × 4-5.5 cm, subglabrous, minutely ciliate, apex acuminate or acute. Inflorescence terminal, with 1 flower; peduncle pubescent; floral bracts foliaceous, ovate-lanceolate, to 9.5 × 2-2.5 cm; pedicel and ovary 3-3.5 cm, sparsely hairy. Flower deep purple; lip with translucent "windows" on back, without a white-margined rim to its mouth. Dorsal sepal elliptic-ovate, 3.5-5 × 1.9-2.2 cm, apex acuminate; synsepal elliptic-lanceolate, 3.2-4.2 × 1.5-2 cm, apex shallowly 2-lobed. Petals ovate-lanceolate, 4.4-5.2 × 0.8-0.9 cm, with very conspicuous veins, adaxial base pubescent, apex acuminate; lip deeply pouched, ellipsoid, 3.5-4.2 × 2.5-2.8 cm, inner bottom hairy. Staminode suboblong, 1.3-1.5 × ca. 1 cm, base subsessile. Fl. Jun-Jul.

● Forests, forest margins, thickets, grassy slopes or stony places along streamsides; 2600-3900 m. W Sichuan, NW Yunnan.