Habenaria leptocaulon J. D. Hooker, Fl. Brit. India 6: 154. 1890; Platanthera silaensis Handel-Mazzetti.

Plants 19-25 cm tall. Rootstock creeping, cylindric, stoloniferous. Stem erect, with 1 or 2 sheaths at base, 1- or rarely 2-leaved. Leaf cauline, linear to linear-oblong, 3.5-8.5 × 0.7-1.4 cm, base clasping, apex acute to subobtuse. Peduncle slender, with 1-3 foliaceous, linear-lanceolate bracts; rachis 4.5-9 cm, laxly 3-6-flowered; floral bracts erect, lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, 10-12 mm, apex acuminate. Flowers yellowish green; pedicel and ovary cylindric-fusiform, ca. 10 mm. Dorsal sepal erect and forming a hood with petals, sublanceolate, ca. 6 × 2-2.2 mm, 3-veined, margin ciliate, apex obtuse; lateral sepals reflexed, lanceolate, slightly oblique, ca. 6 × 2-2.1 mm, 3-veined, margin ciliate, apex obtuse. Petals triangular-lanceolate, oblique, ca. 6 × 2 mm, fleshy, 1-veined, apex acute; lip ligulate-lanceolate, 5.5-8 × 1-1.3 mm, thickened, entire, apex obtuse; spur pendulous, cylindric, 12-20 mm, usually much longer than ovary, slender. Column erect, short; staminodes subelliptic, small; anther locules nearly parallel; pollinia ellipsoid, with short caudicles and suborbicular viscidia; rostellum erect, short; stigma lobes separate, raised, elliptic-oblong, extending on either side of mouth of spur. Fl. Aug-Oct.

Forests, grasslands on slopes; 3000-4000 m. SW Sichuan, S Xizang, NW Yunnan [Bhutan, NE India, Nepal].