软叶筒距兰 ruan ye tong ju lan

Basionym: Didiciea cunninghamii King & Prain, J. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, Pt. 2, Nat. Hist. 65: 119. 1896.

Plants 10-20 cm tall. Pseudobulbs often connected in clumps or rows by a slender or coralloid rhizome, whitish, ovoid, 1-2 × 0.5-0.8 cm, 2-4-noded. Leaf abaxially brownish purple, adaxially greenish, broadly ovate to cordate, 2.5-4 × 1.7-3.5 cm, with 3 prominent veins, margin slightly undulate, apex acute; petiole-like base 2-3.5 cm, channeled. Inflorescence 12-25 cm; peduncle 10-20 cm, with 2 or 3 long tubular sheaths; sheaths ca. 2 cm; rachis 2-10 cm, laxly 8-15-flowered; floral bracts ovate-deltoid, ca. 0.5 mm. Flowers spreading horizontally, not opening widely, yellowish green and sometimes tinged purple along midvein of sepals and petals; pedicel and ovary 3.5-4 mm; pedicel elongating in fruit. Sepals narrowly oblong, 1.8-2 × 0.5-0.6 mm, apex obtuse. Petals linear-lanceolate, ca. 2 × 0.6 mm, apex obtuse; lip broadly oblong-obovate, cymbiform, 1.5-1.8 × 1.6-1.9 mm, simple, fleshy, apex obtuse, saccate-spurred, fused at base to sides of column; spur saccate-conic, short, ca. 0.3 mm. Column ca. 1 mm; pollinia ovoid-clavate, lacking a stipe. Fl. May-Jul.

Coniferous forests; 2700-2900 m. C Taiwan (Hualian) [India (Sikkim, Uttarakhand)].