Microtatorchis platyrhachis Schltr., Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 1 (1913) 1000
Type: Schlechter 16718 (holo B, lost)
Epiphytic, very small, stemless, c. 1 cm high, leafless at anthesis; roots filiform, glabrous. Inflorescence slender-pedunculate, rachis ancipitous, conspicuously widened, rather laxly few-flowered, up to 1.5 cm long including the peduncle. Floral bracts minute, deltoid. Flowers minute, glabrous. Sepals and petals to nearly halfway connate into a bell-shaped tube. Sepals oblong-ligulate, obtuse, c. 0.2 cm long. Lateral sepals oblique. Petals a little shorter than the sepals, free part obliquely ovate, obtuse. Lip in outline ovate-lanceolate, as long as the sepals, in front of the mouth of the spur with a transverse thickened line, lip apex acuminate, incurved; spur ellipsoid, obtuse, half as long as the blade of the lip. Pollinia obliquely oblongoid. Ovary cylindrical, glabrous, 0.13 cm long. (After Schlechter, 1911-1914)
Colours: Flowers yellowish green.
Habitat: Epiphyte in lower montane forest; 1000 m.
Flowering time in the wild: October.
Distribution: Malesia (New Guinea, endemic).
Distribution in New Guinea: Papua New Guinea. See map: 449-37M.JPG.
Cultivation: Intermediate growing epiphyte.