海南开唇兰 hai nan kai chun lan

Plants ca. 12 cm tall. Stem ascending, 3- or 4-leaved. Leaves abaxially lilac, adaxially velvety blackish green with dense golden reticulate venation, ovate, oblique, 3-3.5 × 1.8-2.2 cm, apex acute; petiole-like base and tubular sheath 1.2-1.5 cm. Peduncle 3-3.5 cm, with 2 or 3 sterile bracts, pubescent; rachis 3-4 cm, 4-6-flowered; floral bracts ovate-lanceolate, 6-9 mm, shorter than ovary, outer surface hairy, apex acuminate. Flowers resupinate, slightly fragrant, white; ovary and pedicel twisted, fusiform, ca. 14 mm, pubescent. Sepals green tinged reddish brown at apex and pubescent on outer surface; dorsal sepal ovate-elliptic, 9-10 × ca. 6 mm, apex acuminate; lateral sepals elliptic, oblique, 11-12 × 4.5-5 mm, apex subacute. Petals olive-green with white margins, elliptic-falcate, oblique, 8-8.5 × ca. 3.6 mm, apex acuminate; lip white, Y-shaped, ca. 16 mm; hypochile ca. 2.5 mm; mesochile ca. 4.5 mm; flanges 7-9-laciniate, each filament 4-8 mm; epichile longitudinally dilated, 2-lobed; lobes diverging at an acute angle to one another, ligulate-elliptic, ca. 9 × 3.5 mm, apex truncate; spur cylindric-conic, ca. 8 mm, mouth ca. 3.5 mm in diam., apex distinctly bilobed, containing 2 trapeziform calli. Column stout, ca. 4 mm, with 2 semicircular wings. Fl. Jan (in cultivation).

● Damp shady places in montane forests. Hainan.