!Pleione praecox (Lindl.) D. Don 1825 SECTION Pleione Photo by © David Llewelyn and the Kool Plants.co.uk Website

Another Flower Photo by © Eric Hunt and His Orchid Website

Side View Of Flower Photo by © Pieter C. Brouwer and his Nature Photo Website

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Common Name The Early Blooming Pleione - In China You Qiao Du Suan Lan

Flower Size 2 1/2" to 4" [6 .5 cm to 10 cm]

This small sized, lithophytic and epiphytic, cool to cold growing species is from southwestern China, India, Nepal, Vietnam, north Thailand and Myanamar where it grows in primary highland cloud forests on mossy trees and the rocks below them at altitudes of 1500 to 3400 meters with shortly cylindrical, maroon pseudobulbs covered by greenish warts carrying 2 apical, narrowly elliptic-lanceolate, acute leaves and blooms on a basal, erect, 3 to 6" [7.5 to 15 cm] long inflorescence with a single, fragrant [of primrose] flower and warty, basal sheaths that appears in the fall on old, leafless psuedobulbs.

Synonyms Coelogyne birmanica Rchb.f. 1882; *Coelogyne praecox Lindl. 1821; Coelogyne praecox var. sanguinea Lindl. 1854; Coelogyne praecox var. tenera Rchb.f. 1883; Coelogyne praecox var. wallichiana (Lindl.) Lindl. 1854; Coelogyne reichenbachiana T. Moore 1868; Coelogyne wallichiana Lindl. 1830; Cymbidium praecox Sm. 1821; Dendrobium praecox J.E.Sm 1819; *Epidendrum praecox Sm. 1806; Pleione birmanica (Rchb.f.) B.S.Williams 1894; Pleione concolor hort. ex B.S. Williams 1894; Pleione praecox var. alba E.W.Cooper 1951; Pleione praecox var. candida Pfitzer 1907; Pleione praecox var. reichenbachiana (T.Moore & Veitch) Torelli & Riccab. 200; Pleione reichenbachiana (T. Moore) Kuntze 1891; Pleione wallichiana (Lindl.) Lindl. & Paxton 1851-2

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; The Orchids of Sikkim-Himalaya Part 1 King & Pantling 1898 as Coelogyne praecox drawing fide; The Orchids of North-Western Himalaya Vol IX Part II Duthie 1906 as Coelogyne praecox; AOS Bulletin Vol 28 No 9 1958 drawing; AOS Bulletin Vol 32 No 3 1963 drawing; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965 as P reichenbachiana; AOS Bulletin Vol 28 No 10 1966 photo; AOS Bulletin Vol 47 No 10 1978 photo; Orchid Digest Vol 48 No 4 1984 photo fide; The Orchids of Burma Grant 1895/95; The Orchids of Thailand Seidenfaden & Smitinand 1959 drawing; AOS Bulletin Vol 47 No 7 1978 photo; Orchids of Kumaun Himalayas Pangtey, Samant and Rawat 1991; Wild Orchids of China Tsi, Chen Mori 1997; ASO Bulletin Vol 67 No 4 1998; Native Orchids of China in Colour Singchi, Zhanhuo and Yibo 1999 photo fide; Beautiful Orchids of Nepal Rajbhandari & Bhattarai 2001; Orchids of Bhutan Pearce & Cribb 2002; Wild Orchids in Myanamar Vol 2 Tanaka 2004; AOS Bulletin Vol 75 No 4 2006 drawing; Orchids of India A Glimpse Misra 2007 drawing ok; AOS Bulletin Vol 77 No 11 2008 photo; Native Orchids From Gaoligongshan Mountains, China Xiaohua, Xiaodong and Xiaochun 2009 photo fide; A Field Guide to the Orchids of China Singchi, Zhongjian, Yibo, Xiaohua and Zhanhuo 2009 photo fide; Flora of China Vol 25 Zhengyi, Raven & Deyuan 2009; The Wild Orchids in Yunnan Xu Xiang Ye & Liu 2010 photos ok

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