仙笔鹤顶兰 xian bi he ding lan

Phaius guizhouensis G. Z. Li.

Plants 60-100 cm tall. Pseudobulb cylindric, resembling robust stems, 15-40 × 3-5 cm. Leaves 6 or 7, on upper part of pseudobulb; blade green, elliptic, 30-70 × 9-14 cm, apex acuminate. Inflorescence arising from first node of pseudobulb, not exceeding height of leaves, ca. 20 cm, ca. 12-flowered; floral bracts caducous, ovate-triangular, 1.5-2 × ca. 1.4 cm. Flowers not widely opening, 8-5.5 cm in diam.; pedicel and ovary 2-3.5 cm, with sparse brown hairs; sepals and petals cream-white with green tops on dorsal sepals. Sepals subsimilar, suboblong or falcate-oblong, 3.5-4.5 × 1.3-1.5 cm, glabrous, apex acute. Petals falcate-oblong, 3.3-4 × ca. 1.5 cm, apex acute; lip cream-white with adaxial surface tinged orange-red on mid-lobe, suborbicular, slightly 3-lobed; lateral lobes suborbicular, margin undulate, apex rounded; mid-lobe ovate, margin crisped, apex rounded-obtuse; disk with 2 or 3 yellow ridges, glabrous; spur yellowish green with whitish green stripes, narrowly conic or horn-shaped, short, 3.5-7 × 2-3 mm, apex slightly concave. Column cream-white, ventral side with orange-red stripes, ca. 2 cm, sparsely white hairy ventrally; anther cap cream-white. Fl. Jun.

● Open places between rocks in limestone forests; 200-1700 m. N Guangdong, SW Guizhou, S Yunnan (Mengla).