玫瑰石斛 mei gui shi hu

Callista crepidata (Lindley & Paxton) Kuntze; C. lawiana (Lindley) Kuntze; Dendrobium lawianum Lindley.

Stems pendulous, green, cylindric, usually 30-40 cm, stout, ca. 1 cm in diam., fleshy, base slightly contracted, unbranched, with many nodes, internodes 3-4 cm, with green and white-striped sheaths, purplish bronze when dry. Leaves narrowly lanceolate, 5-10 × 1-1.25 cm, subleathery, base with clasping sheath, apex acuminate; leaf sheath membranous. Inflorescence arising from old stems after leaves have fallen, very short, 1-4-flowered; peduncle ca. 3 mm; basal sheaths 3 or 4, scarious; floral bracts ovate, ca. 4 mm, apex acute. Pedicel and ovary pale purplish red, ca. 3.5 cm. Flowers spreading, thick, sometimes cleistogamous; sepals and petals white, pale purple above middle, waxy when dry, lip pale purplish red above middle, golden yellow below middle, column white, front with 2 purplish red stripes. Dorsal sepal subelliptic, ca. 21 × 10 mm, 5-veined, obtuse; lateral sepals ovate-oblong, nearly as large as dorsal sepal, 5-veined, midvein on abaxial surface ± keeled, base oblique, apex obtuse; mentum subglobose, small, ca. 5 mm. Petals broadly obovate, ca. 21 × 12 mm, 5-veined, rounded; lip orbicular or broadly obovate, length subequal to width, ca. 2 cm, both sides embracing column below middle, adaxially densely pubescent. Column ca. 3 mm; anther cap subconic, front margin denticulate, apex narrowed and arching forward.

Epiphytic on tree trunks in open forests, lithophytic on rocks in mountain valleys; 1000-1800 m. SW Guizhou, S Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam].