弓背舌唇兰 gong bei she chun lan

Habenaria platantheroides Tang & F. T. Wang, Bull. Fan Mem. Inst. Biol. Bot. 7: 133. 1936, not Schlechter (1918); Platanthera platantheroides K. Y. Lang.

Plants 24-32 cm tall. Rootstock creeping, cylindric, stoloniferous. Stem erect or ascending, with 1 or 2 tubular sheaths at base, usually 2-leaved. Leaves elliptic to obovate, 5-8 × 2-3.5 cm, base clasping, apex acute or acuminate. Peduncle slender, sometimes with 1 or 2 foliaceous bracts; rachis 5.5-12 cm, 4-10- or more flowered; floral bracts lanceolate, apex acuminate or acute. Flowers yellowish green; pedicel and ovary strongly arcuate, cylindric-fusiform, ca. 12 mm. Dorsal sepal erect and connivent with petals, broadly ovate, cymbiform, ca. 7 × 5 mm, 3-veined, margin ciliate, apex obtuse; lateral sepals reflexed, lanceolate, oblique, ca. 9 × 3 mm, 3-veined, margin ciliate, apex obtuse. Petals erect, narrowly lanceolate, falcate, ca. 8 × 2 mm, 1- or rarely 3-veined, apex acute; lip ligulate-lanceolate, ca. 11 × 2.3 mm, 3-veined, entire, apex obtuse; spur spreading horizontally, cylindric-clavate, ca. 18 mm, much longer than ovary, slightly thickened toward apex, apex obtuse. Column erect, short; staminodes square, small; anther locules slightly divergent; pollinia ellipsoid, with slender caudicles and large, orbicular viscidia; rostellum erect, short; stigma lobes separate, clavate, large, protruding obliquely on either side of mouth of spur. Fl. Jul-Aug.

● Forests, scrub, grasslands on slopes; 1900-3600 m. SW and W Sichuan, SE Xizang (Mêdog), SW Yunnan (Menglian).