Gastrodia crassisepala L.O.Williams, Amer. Orchid Soc. Bull. 11 (1942) 211
Type: Brass 13682 (holo AMES in spirit; analysis in Herbarium)
Erect, leafless, up to about 5 cm tall. Rhizome 2-3 cm Iong, 0.2-0.4 cm diam., cylindrical, thickened, often with much elongated fibrous roots (?) arising near its apex. Stem slender, fleshy; scales 2 or more, membranaceous, amplexicaul or non-amplexicaul, acute. Inflorescence 1-flowered; bracts about 0.5 cm long, strongly cucullate, acute, about as long as the ovary. Sepals united into a tube for about 2/3 of their length, thick and fleshy, keeled along the mid-nerve dorsally, acute. Median sepal about 1 cm. long, the free part 0.25-0.3 by 0.3 cm, subtriangular, not verrucose-callose within. Lateral sepals about 1.2 cm long, the free part about 0.4 by 0.35 cm, subtriangular, the apical part prominently callose or verrucose-callose within. Petals with the free part 0.2-0.25 by 0.15 cm, ovate, obtuse, adnate to the sepals with the free part in the sinuses between the Median sepal and the lateral sepals. Lip about 0.6 by 0.4 cm, orbicular-obovate; apical part about 0.2 by 0.12-0.15 cm, oblong-spatulate, obtuse, slightly dilated, with two erect, lamellate calli at the base which extend back onto the basal part of the lip, the calli about 0.2 cm long and 0.08 cm high. Column 0.6-0.7 cm long, winged. Column-foot 0.1-0.2 cm long, with two stipitate, verrucose calli at its apex. (After Williams, 1942).
Colours: Whole plant pale purple.
Habitat: Terrestrial in forest. Altitude 750 m.
Flowering time in the wild: March.
Distribution: Malesia (New Guinea, endemic).
Distribution in New Guinea: Papua (Indonesia). See map: 314-10M.JPG
Cultivation: Terrestrial, probably parasitic on fungi and probably impossible to grow under normal conditions.