Pinalia connata - Connate Eria

Connate Eria is a miniature to small sized, tree-dwelling orchid giving rise arcuate to drooping, slender green, obliquely noded, leafy apically, arising from the base of the older leafless, becoming erect, more swollen, subcylindric, slightly compressed, subclub-shaped, pseudbulb carrying in youth 4 to 5, stalkless, at branch-ends, narrowly elliptic, distinctly 5-7 nerved, deciduous leaves. The plant blooms in the summer on 1-2, in leaf-axils to leaf opposed, nearly stalkless, dense, spherical many flowered inflorescence with unequal, carrying fragrant, white flowers with a yellow lip. Flowers are many, crowded, bracteate, not widely opening, fragrant, white with yellow lips. Dorsal sepal is 3.5-4.0 x 2.5-3.0 mm, ovate, blunt, hooded over the column. Lateral sepals are 7-8 x 2.0-2.5 mm, obliquely oblong-lanceshaped, blunt, thickened at tip, fused along the lower margins up to the middle forming a long tubular mentum, closely enveloping the lip. Lateral petals are 3-4 x I 1.5-2.0 mm, much narrower and a little shorter than the sepals, ovate-lanceshaped, blunt at tip, thin. Lip is 6.0-6.5 x 2.0-2.5 mm, narrowly inverted-lanceshaped, 3-lobed, longer than the dorsal sepal and petals, but shorter than the lateral sepals. Connate Eria is found in NE India, Bhutan to Arunachal Pradesh, at altitudes of 1100-1500 m. Flowering: July-August.