ORCHIDACEAE
Arundina Blume, Bijdr. Fl. Ned. Ind.: 401 (1825).
By: Lokesh R. Shakya
Taxon Description
Plants sympodial, terrestrial with short rhizomes. Stem elongated, not fleshy, many-leaved. Leaves sheathing at the base, arranged in two rows, glabrous, deciduous, convolute, narrow, stiff. Inflorescence terminal, a several-flowered raceme, sometimes branching, with the flowers opening in succession, 1 or 2 at a time. Flowers large, resupinate, showy, white to pink with a magenta-purple lip. Bracts small. Sepals free. Petals much broader than the sepals. Lip without spur, not mobile. Column foot absent; pollinia 8 in 2 groups, solid, compressed, with short caudicles attached to viscidia.
Taxon Statistics
Worldwide one species, distributed in tropical and subtropical Asia.
1. Arundina graminifolia (D. Don) Hochr., Bull. New York Bot. Gard. 6: 270 (1910).
Bletia graminifolia D. Don, Prodr. Fl. Nepal.: 29 (1825).
Plants 1–2.5 m tall. Stem erect, rigid, enclosed by leaf sheaths. Leaves numerous, alternate, distichous, narrowly oblong-lanceolate, ca. 12–30 X 1–2.5cm, acuminate, sheathing at the base, grass-like. Inflorescence ca. 15–20 cm, erect, usually branched, 5–10-flowered, flowers opening in succession. Flowers 7–8 cm across between two petals, white to rosy-purple, lip darker coloured. Fertile bract ca. 1 X 0.5 cm, broadly ovate, shorter than pedicel and ovary. Sepals subequal, spreading. Dorsal sepal erect, narrowly elliptic-lanceolate, 5 X 1.2 cm, acute, 5-veined. Lateral sepals lying parallel behind the lip, elliptic-lanceolate, 5 X 1.3 cm, acute, one veined. Petals rhomboid-elliptic, 5.5 X 2.4 cm, acute, distinctly 7-veined, except middle nerve other nerves branched at the tip. Lip 6 X 4.5 cm, 3-lobed, side lobes incurved around column; mid-lobe subquadrate, margins crisped, deeply emarginated at the apex, disc with three lamellate nerves. Column ca. 3 cm.
Distribution: Nepal, W Himalaya, E Himalaya and SE Asia.
Altitudinal range: 400–2200 m.
Ecology: Vertical slopes along roadsides.
Flowering: May–September.