棒节石斛 bang jie shi hu

Callista findlayana (E. C. Parish & H. G. Reichenbach) Kuntze.

Stems erect or ascending, ca. 20 cm, 7-10 mm in diam., unbranched, with several nodes, internodes compressed clavate or clavate, 3-3.5 cm, base often with persistent papery leaf sheaths. Leaves alternate on upper part of stem, lanceolate, 5.5-8 × 1.3-2 cm, leathery, base with clasping sheath, apex slightly obtuse and unequally bilobed. Inflorescences from old stems after leaves have fallen, 2-flowered; peduncle 6-16 cm; basal sheaths ca. 5 mm, membranous; floral bracts ovate-triangular, ca. 6 mm, membranous. Pedicel and ovary pale rose, 5-6 cm. Flowers spreading; sepals and petals white with roseate tip, lip base roseate, with purplish red stripes on both sides, disk golden yellow at center, column with purplish red stripes at front, anther cap white. Dorsal sepal oblong-lanceolate, 35-37 × ca. 9 mm, 5-veined, subobtuse to acute; lateral sepals ovate-lanceolate, 35-37 × ca. 9 mm, 5-veined, apex subacute; mentum subcylindric, ca. 5 mm. Petals broadly oblong, 35-37 × ca. 18 mm, 5-veined, base shortly clawed, apex acute; lip suborbicular, concave, ca. 24 mm wide, densely pubescent, acute. Column ca. 8 mm; anther cap bluntly rounded.

Epiphytic on tree trunks in open forests; 800-900 m. S Yunnan (Mengla) [N Laos, Myanmar, N Thailand].

This species was named after its collector, Mr. James Findlay (E. C. Parish in F. Mason, Burmah, ed. [4], 2: 159. 1883). The spelling used in the protologue must therefore be treated as an orthographical error.