Chinese Ground Orchid is a terrestrial orchid 18-60 cm
tall. Flowers are erect or spreading, purplish red or pink, large;
flower-stalk and ovary twisted, 1.0-2.4 cm. Petals and sepals are
purplish red or pink, narrowly oblong, 14-32 x 4-11 mm, petals slightly
larger. Lip is white, tinged with purplish red, with purplish veins,
obovate-elliptic, 1.4-2.8 x 1.0-1.8 cm. Column is almost round, 1.4-2
cm, slender, dilated toward tip, with narrow wings; rostellum large.
Stem is 3-25 cm, stout, enclosing several long tubular sheaths,
4-6-leaved. Leaves are widely spaced or clustered toward tip of stem,
pleated, narrowly oblong to lanceshaped-elliptic, 8-29 x 1.5-4 cm, base
contracted into stem-clasping sheath, tip tapering.
Flower-cluster-stalk is 14-34 cm, slender, axis flexuous, sometimes
drooping, 2-7 cm, simple or sometimes branched, 3-10-flowered. Capsules
are up to 3.4 cm. Chinese Ground Orchid is native to Myanmar, China to
Japan. Flowering: April-May.
Medicinal uses: The tubers of Chinese Ground
Orchid have been utilized in Traditional Chinese Medicine for various
ailments, such as hematemesis, tuberculosis, malignant ulcers,
hemorrhoids, traumatic bleeding, and chapped skin.
Identification credit: Tabish, Pankaj Kumar
Photographed in cultivation in Imphal, Manipur.
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The flower labeled Chinese Ground Orchid is ...