Trichotosia pulvinata - Cushion-Lip Eria

Cushion-Lip Eria is a miniature to medium sized, tree-dwelling orchid with a pendent, cylindric, bristly stem carrying many, narrowly lanceshaped, pointed to tapering, stalkless, reddish velvet-hairy, jointed leaves. The plant blooms in the spring on a short, arising opposite the leaves, bristly, 3-6 flowered inflorescence with a basal, ovate sheath and heart-shaped, concave, bristly floral bracts. Flowers are white, flushed pink; flower-stalk and ovary about 6 mm. Sepals are reddish brown woolly below; dorsal sepal oblong, about 10 x 3 mm, blunt; lateral sepals ovate-triangular, oblique, about 10 x 4 mm. Petals are lanceshaped, about 8 x 2 mm, hairless, blunt. Lip is almost spoon-shaped in outline, about 13 x 4 mm, entire, margin reflexed; disk with an elongate convexly-curved cushionlike callus toward tip. Cushion-Lip Eria is found in E. Nepal to NE India, China and SE Asia, at altitudes of 1200-2000 m. Flowering: March.