Platanthera sikkimensis (Hook.f.) Kraenzl. 1899 Photo by © S. Z. Lucksom and Orchids of Sikkim and norteastern Himalayas

Common Name The Sikkim Platanthera

Flower Size .4 to .6" [1 to 1.5 cm]

Found in the Chinese Himalayas, eastern Himalayas, Sikkim, and Nepal at elevations of 3000 to 3600 meters as a small sized, cold growing terrestrial with a globose tuber giving rise to a short, ebracteate above stem with imbricating, tubular, subacute basal sheaths and carrying 2 to 3, distant, oblong-elliptic, acuter sessile base leaves that blooms in the summer on an erect, glabrous, 2.4 to 4" [6 to 10 cm] long, laxly 6 to 10 flowered inflorescence with large, leaf-like, linear-lanceolate, acute to acuminate floral bracts.

Synonyms Habenaria sikkimensis Hook.f. 1890

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Orchids of Bhutan Pearce & Cribb 2002; Native Orchids From Gaoligongshan Mountains, China Xiaohua, Xiaodong and Xiaochun 2009 photo fide;

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