Green Calanthe is a large sized, terrestrial orchid
with conic pseudobulbs enveloped by leaf sheaths and carrying usually
3, not well developed at blooming, almost erect, not deciduous,
sword-shaped to narrowly oblong-inverted-lanceshaped, pointed leaved,
gradually narrowing below into the stalk-like, pseudostem base. It is
named for Reverend White (1800s), a Christian chaplain in Singapore. The
plant blooms in the later spring on an erect, in leaf-axils, stout,
finely velvet-hairy, to 70 cm long, 10-20 flowered inflorescence with 1
to 2, tubular sheaths and persistent, reflexed, narrowly lanceshaped,
sparsely finely velvet-hairy floral bracts. Flowers are pale yellow to
yellowish green, turning black when dried; flower-stalk and ovary about
1 cm, finely velvet-hairy. Dorsal sepal is reflexed, ovate-lanceshaped,
9-10 x 3.5-4 mm, tip blunt; lateral sepals reflexed, ovate, oblique,
9-10 x 4.5-5 mm, tip blunt. Petals are narrowly elliptic or
ovate-lanceshaped, 8-9 x 2.5-3 mm, midvein prominent, tip blunt; lip
yellowish white, kidney-shaped, about 5 x 13 mm. Spur is cylindric,
8-10 x about 1.3 mm. Green Calanthe is found in NE India to China
and N. Indo-China. Flowering: May-June.
Identification credit: Jambey Tsering
Photographed in Sessa, West Kameng, Arunachal Pradesh.
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The flower labeled Green Calanthe is ...