ORCHIDACEAE
Herpysma Lindl. in Edwards’s Bot. Reg. 19: ad t. 1618 (1833).
By: Lokesh R. Shakya
Taxon Description
Terrestrial herbs. Rhizome creeping, cylindrical, with nodes. Stem erect, leafy. Leaves oblong-lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, petiole short, base tubular, forming a membranous sheath. Inflorescence terminal, racemose, many-flowered, pubescent. Sterile bracts absent. Fertile bracts longer than ovary, pubescent. Flowers resupinate, sessile. Ovary cylindrical, pubescent. Sepals pubescent externally, dorsal sepal and petals forming hood. Lip shorter than sepals, recurved, spurred at base. Column short, anther 2-locular, pollinia 2, granular, sectile.
Taxon Statistics
Worldwide one species.
1. Herpysma longicaulis Lindl., Gen. Sp. Orchid. Pl.: 506 (1840).
Plants up to 32 cm. Stem stout, 20–23 cm, 5–8 mm in diameter. Leaves many, crowded at apex of rhizome, distant at base, oblong-lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, 5–8 X 1.5–2.5 cm, alternate, acute, petiolate, petiole sheathing at base. Inflorescence 3–4 cm, many-flowered. Fertile bracts oblong-lanceolate, 10–14 X 4–5 mm, decreasing in size upwards, acute, pubescent externally. Flowers uniformly white, 12 mm across. Sepals subsimilar, 3-veined, pubescent, broadly lanceolate, 8–12 X 2–3 mm, lateral sepals spreading. Petals elliptic-lanceolate, 6–9 X 3–4 mm, acute, 3-veined. Lip oblong, 8–10 X 3–4 mm, deflexed, base with two rounded lobes; apex subqudrate, disc with 2 calli, spur pendulous, parallel to ovary, slender, 7–8 mm. Column ca. 3 mm.
Distribution: Nepal, E Himalaya, Assam-Burma.
Altitudinal range: 1300 m.
Ecology: ??
Flowering: January.