Himalayan Ladies-Tresses is a terrestrial orchid up to
30 cm tall, with linear-lanceshaped leaves.. Inflorescence is
velvet-hairy. Flowers are borne in a lax to tightly coiled spiral,
bell-shaped, held perpendicular to the flower-cluster-stalk, white to
pale pink. Sepals are velvet-hairy. Dorsal sepal slightly to moderately
upwardly recurved distally, lanceshaped, bluntly tapering, 3.5-4.0 mm
long, about 1 mm wide when flattened. Lateral sepals are lanceshaped,
pointed, 3.7-4.2 mm long, 1-1.4 mm wide. Petals are lanceshaped,
bluntly pointed, slightly to strongly recurved at tips, with the dorsal
sepal appearing star-shaped. Lip is recurved downward at about
two-thirds the distance from the claw to lip tip, oblong to slightly
constricted near the reflexion and then dilating below, margin entire
to slightly undulating from the base until the area of recurvature,
below point of recurvature margin becoming ruffled and lacerate. Lip is
4-4.5 mm long, 2-2.7 mm wide below the callosities, 1.7-2.1 mm wide at
the area of recurvature when flattened, 2.02.6 mm wide at widest point
below recurvature. Column is white dorsally, green ventrally, 1.7-2.2
mm long. Himalayan Ladies-Tresses is found in N. Afghanistan to the
Himalayas to S. Central Japan and W. Malesia. It is also found in
Western Ghats.
Identification credit: Ashutosh Sharma
Photographed in Rudarparyag, Uttarakhand & Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh.
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The flower labeled Himalayan Ladies-Tresses is ...