Cypripedium amesianum Schlechter.

Plants 20-37 cm tall, with a stout, short rhizome. Stem erect, glabrous or sparsely pubescent in upper part especially near nodes, with several sheaths at base and 3 or 4 leaves above. Leaf blade elliptic or elliptic-lanceolate, 6-14 × 1-3.5 cm, abaxially puberulent especially on veins, adaxially glabrous or sparsely puberulent, apex acuminate. Inflorescence terminal, with 1 flower; peduncle sparsely pubescent in upper part; floral bracts foliaceous, ovate-elliptic or ovate-lanceolate, 4-6 × ca. 1.5 cm, both surfaces sparsely pubescent, apex acute or acuminate; pedicel and ovary 2-3.5 cm, glabrous or upper part slightly hairy. Flower 4-6 cm in diam., pink, purplish red, or occasionally off-white, with darker veins; staminode white with a purple stripe centrally. Dorsal sepal ovate-elliptic, 2.2-3.2 × 1.2-1.6 cm, apex acuminate; synsepal elliptic-lanceolate, 2.2-3.2 × 0.8-1 cm, apex shallowly 2-lobed. Petals slightly twisted or not, lanceolate, 2.2-3.2 × 0.7-0.8 cm, adaxial base hairy, apex acuminate; lip deeply pouched, ellipsoid, 2.2-3.2 × 1.5-1.8 cm, with a paler rim to its mouth, outer surface glabrous, inner bottom hairy. Staminode elliptic or ovate, 6-7 × 3-4 mm, base subsessile. Fl. May.

● Pinus forests, thickets, grassy slopes; 2700-3800 m. SW and W Sichuan, SE Xizang, NW Yunnan.