长足石仙桃 chang zu shi xian tao

Rhizome 4-8 mm in diam., stout, with scaly sheaths. Pseudobulbs rather dense, cylindric, 4-11.5 cm × 3-4 mm, attenuate toward apex, apex 2-leaved. Leaf blade narrowly elliptic-lanceolate, 8-16 × 1.5-3 cm, papery, with many veins, long acuminate; petiole 1-3 cm. Inflorescence arising with young pseudobulb and young leaves from base of last pseudobulb, 6-10 cm; rachis 4-5 cm, 7-9-flowered; floral bracts persistent at least at end of flowering, ovate, concave, 5-6 × 2.5-3 mm. Flowers fragrant, white, ca. 1.2 cm in diam.; pedicel and ovary 1-1.2 cm. Sepals ovate, cymbiform, 11-12 × ca. 5 mm, 5-veined, obtuse or mucronate, dorsally carinate. Petals ovate-elliptic, slightly shorter than sepals, obtuse; lip ca. 1 cm, contracted at middle to form epichile and hypochile; hypochile saccate, ca. 5 × 2.5 mm, with 2 longitudinal lamellae near base; epichile oblong, ca. 5 × 3 mm, mucronate, base with 3 thickened ridges ca. 1 mm. Column ca. 3 mm, winged on both sides; rostellum broadly ligulate, ca. 1 mm. Capsule obovoid, ca. 1.8 × 1 cm, 3-ridged, ridges narrowly winged; fruiting pedicel 5-10 mm. Fl. Jan.

● Lithophytic on humid rocks in evergreen broad-leaved forests along limestone valleys; 1000-1400 m. SE Yunnan.

Curiously, this species was omitted from de Vogel’s monograph of Pholidota (Orchid Monogr. 3. 1988). In FRPS 18 (394-397. 1999), this species was placed in the 2-leaved P. sect. Chinenses (H. G. Reichenbach) de Vogel).