Habenaria sahyadrica K.M.P.Kumar, Nirmesh, V.B.Sreek. & Kumar 2016 SECTION Macroceratitis Kraenzl
Photo by © K M Prabhu and Phytotaxa 244(2):196 2016. Habenaria sahyadrica (Orchidaceae, Orchideae) a new species from the Western Ghats (India) with critical notes on allied taxa.
Common Name The Sahyadri Habenaria [refers to the location of the orchid, in sanskrit it is the name of the Western Ghats]
Flower Size 1" [2.5 cm]
Found in Kerala state of India in the Western Ghats in shola forests at elevations around 1700 meters as a medium sized, cool growing terrestrial with a single globose tuber giving rise to an erect, cylindric stem, leafy from the base upwards, mainly on the upper two thirds of stem carrying 5 to 8, alternate, sessile, elliptic-lanceolate, acute, base narrow, petiole like, glabrous on both sides; margin undulate leaves that blooms in the fall and winter on an erect, terminal, racemose, Peduncle 4.8 to 5.6" [12 to 14 cm] long, glabrous, clothed with elliptic, acuminate, glabrous, sterile greenish bracts, Rachis 2.4 to 3.2" [6 to 8 cm] long, 8 to 15 flowered inflorescence with elliptic-attenuate, trinerved, glabrous, as long as the pedicel floral bracts and carrying pale greenish-white flowers.
" Habenaria sahyadrica shows affinities with H. multicaudata and H. panigrahiana in having similar filliform petals, labellum lobes and posterior sepals, but it can be easily distinguished from the allied taxa by its attenuate floral bract, spreading lateral sepals, truncate bifid or bipartite petals divided into an anterior and a posterior lobe and the trilobed or tripartite labellum, six nerved dorsal sepal, midlobe of lip and upward curve of the apices of the lateral lobes, clavate-obtuse apex of spur and ridged ovary with normal apex."
Synonyms Fimbrorchis oldhamii (Kraenzl.) Szlach. 2004; Fimbrorchis sagittifera (Rchb.f.) Szlach. 2004; Fimbrorchis tosaensis (Makino) Szlach. 2004; Habenaria tosaensis Makino 1892; Pecteilis sagittifera (Rchb.f.) M.A.Clem. & D.L.Jones 2018
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
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