兜唇石斛 dou chun shi hu

Dendrobium pierardii Roxburgh ex J. D. Hooker; D. pierardii var. cucullatum (R. Brown) J. D. Hooker.

Stems pendulous, cylindric, 30-60(-90) cm, slender, 4-7(-10) mm in diam., fleshy, unbranched, with many nodes, internodes 2-3.5 cm. Leaves lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, 6-8 × 2-3 cm, leathery, base sheathing, apex acuminate; leaf sheath pale white when dry, papery, sheath mouth open cupular. Inflorescences multiple, on deciduous or leafy old stems, very short, 1-3-flowered; peduncle 2-5 mm; basal sheaths 3 or 4, 2-3 mm, membranous; floral bracts pale white, ovate, ca. 3 mm, membranous, apex acute. Pedicel and ovary deep brown, tinged with green, 2-2.5 cm. Flowers spreading, pendulous; sepals and petals white tinged with pale purplish red or distal part pale purplish red, lip with purplish red striation on both sides at base, pale yellow above middle, pale pink below middle, column white with red stripes on both front sides, anther cap white. Dorsal sepal sublanceolate, ca. 23 × 5-6(or more) mm, 5-veined, apex subacute; lateral sepals similar in size and shape, 5-veined, base oblique, apex acute; mentum narrowly conic, ca. 5 mm, obtuse. Petals elliptic, ca. 23 × 9-10(or more) mm, 5-veined, margin entire, apex obtuse; lip broadly obovate or suborbicular, 25-26 × ca. 25 mm, laterally embracing column and trumpet-shaped, both surfaces densely pubescent, base narrowly clawed, margin irregularly denticulate. Column ca. 3 mm; anther cap subconic, densely finely papillate-hairy, front margin broadly emarginate. Capsule narrowly obovoid, ca. 4 × 1.2 cm, with a stalk 1-1.5 cm.

Epiphytic on tree trunks in open forests, lithophytic on rocks in mountain valleys; 400-1500 m. NW Guangxi, SW Guizhou (Xingyi), SE to W Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Vietnam].

Some early authors identified material of Dendrobium cucullatum as D. aphyllum (Roxburgh) C. E. C. Fischer (Limodorum aphyllum Roxburgh), but Christenson & H. P. Wood (Orchids 72: 775. 2003) showed Roxburgh’s plant to be D. macrostachyum Lindley, not D. cucullatum.