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Hairy-Root Luisia
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Hairy-Root Luisia
P Native Orchid lanceshaped Photo: Nayan Jyoti Gogoi
Common name: Hairy-Root Luisia
Botanical name: Luisia trichorrhiza    Family: Orchidaceae (Orchid family)
Synonyms: Vanda trichorhiza

Hairy-Root Luisia is an orchid growing on tree. Roots are basal, clustered, hairy. Stem is stout, unbranched (occasionally branched), covered by leaf sheaths, 4-7 mm wide; sheaths tubular, striped-channeled, 1.2-1.6 cm long. Leaves are distichous, fleshy, round, rugose, jointed, 8-13 x 0.1-0.3cm. Flowers are borne in leaf-opposed, stout, short, 4- or 5-flowered clusters. Flower-cluster-stalk is narrowed, axis thick, 7-9 x 3-4mm; floral bracts persistent, broadly ovate-triangular, boat-shaped, tapering, 1.5-2 x 1-1.5mm. Flowers are 1.5 cm across; sepals pale green with faint purple lines, lip dark purple, the base outlined with green lines, the apical ridges green, column purple; flower-stalk and ovary 5-6mm long. Dorsal sepal is oblong, blunt, 3-veined, 6.5-9 x 1.2-1.8mm; lateral sepals spreading, obliquely ovate to spoon-shaped, pointed, keeled, 3-veined, 7-8 x 1.3-2mm. Petals are oblong, blunt, spreading, 3-veined, 7 x 1.3mm, Lip is 3-lobed, 6-8 x 3-4mm (across epichile when spread); hypochile deeply concave with erect, rounded to triangular, somewhat pointed lateral lobes; epichile heart-shaped, ridged, tapering to subflat, minutely notched tip. Column is stout, 1.5-2mm long. Fruit is cylindric, ridged, 1.6-3.5 x 0.4-0.8cm. Hairy-Root Luisia is found in angladesh, Western Himalayas, Eastern Himalayas, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanamar, and Thailand at elevations of 1000-1300 m.

Identification credit: Nayan Jyoti Gogoi Photographed in New Forest, FRI, Dehradun.

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