Platanthera curvata K.Y.Lang 1987
Photos by © Sue Kelly and the Biodiversity of the Hengduan Mountains Orchid Website
Drawing by © Zang Tasili and the Flora of China Vol 25: 157 Illustrations Zhengyi, Raven & Deyuan 2010
Common Name The Curved Platanthera - In China Gong Bei She Chun Lan
Flower Size .6" [1.5 cm]
Found in Tibet to Yunnan Province of China in forests, scrub and grasslands on slopes at elevations of 1900 to 3930 meters as a small to just medium sized, cold growing terrestrial with a creeping, cylindric, stoloniferous rootstock giving rise to an erect to ascending stem with 1 to 2, tubular, basal sheaths and carrying 2, elliptic to obovate, acute to acuminate, basally clasping leaves that blooms in the summer on an erect, slender, 2.2 to 4.8" [5.5 to 12 cm] long, 4 to 10+ flowered inflorescence with 1 to 2, foliaceous bractsw and lanceolate, acuminate to acute floral bracts.
CAUTION!!! Kew has this species synomonous with P bhutanica but I have left them separate pending more research. P bhutanica flower photos match the references better than the photos above but not the plant and leaves which in the Flora of China drawings are only 2, broadly elliptic, obtuse and not undulate.
Synonyms Habenaria platantheroides Tang & F.T.Wang 1936; Platanthera platantheroides K.Y.Lang 1989
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
Bull. Fan Mem. Inst. Biol., Bot. 7: 133 Tang & F.T.Wang 1936 as Habenaria platantheroides nom. illeg.
*Fl. Xizang. 5: 697 K Y Lang 1987
Bot. Res., Inst. Bot. (Beijing) 4: 9 K Y Lang 1989 as P platanthroides nom. illeg. ;
Flora of China Vol 25: 108 Zhengyi, Raven & Deyuan 2009;
Flora of China Vol 25: 157 Illustrations Zhengyi, Raven & Deyuan 2010 drawing ok
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