金石斛 jin shi hu

Desmotrichum comatum Blume, Bijdr. 330. 1825; Callista comata (Blume) Kuntze; Dendrobium comatum (Blume) Lindley; D. fimbriatolabellum Hayata; Desmotrichum fimbriatolabellum (Hayata) Hayata; Ephemerantha comata (Blume) P. F. Hunt & Summerhayes; E. fimbriatolabella (Hayata) P. F. Hunt & Summerhayes; E. tairukounia S. S. Ying; Flickingeria fimbriatolabellum (Hayata) A. D. Hawkes; F. tairukounia (S. S. Ying) T. P. Lin.

Rhizome creeping, ca. 1.3 cm in diam., stout, internodes 3-6 mm. Pseudobulbs fusiform, ca. 6.5 × 1.7-2.3 cm. Stems ascending, pale yellow, many branched. Leaf shortly petiolate, ovate to oblong, 5-11 × 2-5 cm, leathery, apex obtuse or rounded. Inflorescence simultaneously adaxial and abaxial, very short, usually 1- or 2-flowered. Flowers thinly textured, fragile, whitish, with purple spots on sepals and petals, lip yellow; pedicel and ovary ca. 1.5 cm, slender. Dorsal sepal narrowly lanceolate, 10-15 × 3-3.5 mm, acute; lateral sepals linear-falcate, oblique, 10-15 × ca. 4.5 mm; mentum borne at an acute angle to ovary, narrowly conic, ca. 4 mm. Petals linear, 10-15 × 1-1.5 mm, acute; lip obtriangular, 10-15 mm, base cuneate, 3-lobed; lateral lobes subovate, 3.5-4 × 1-1.5 mm, apical margin ± lacerate; mid-lobe very plicate, 10-12 mm, margin deeply fimbriate-lacerate, divided into many fine segments. Column ca. 4 mm, stout, foot ca. 4 mm. Fl. Jul. 2n = 38.

Epiphytic on tree trunks along streams and in mixed forests, cliffs; 100-1000 m. E and S Taiwan [Indonesia, Malaysia, New Guinea, Philippines; Australia, Pacific islands].

Flickingeria tairukounia appears to be a peloric form of F. comata.