Ceratostylis macra J.J.Sm., Nova Guinea 18 (1935) 30, pl. 7, 17
Type: Docters van Leeuwen 10894 (holo L?; iso BO)
Rhizome short, strongly branched, caespitose; roots thin, long pilose. Stems crowded, elongated, slender, terete, 12-26 cm long, from 0.1 to slightly more than 0.1 cm diam. (in spirit material), 1-leaved; basal sheaths appressed, becoming larger upwards, membranous, prominently veined, up to 4.5-6 cm long. Leaf terete, filiform, obtusely channeled above, 5.5-7.25 cm long, from 0.1 cm to slightly more than 0.1 cm diam.; sheath channeled, base tubular, 0.25-0.35 cm long. Inflorescences fascicled, peduncle thin, 0.32 cm long, 1-flowered, with a few membranous scales similar to the bract. Floral bract as long as the ovary, at the base shortly tubular, enveloping the ovary, otherwise subinflated-concave, acute, membranous, 0.3 cm long. Flowers 0.4 cm wide, 0.48 cm long, few opening at the same time. Sepals and petals at the base erect, recurved. Sepals only at the base, especially on the mentum sparsely puberulous. Median sepal oblong, apex shortly pointed, obtuse, 3-nerved, 0.36 cm long, 0.14 cm wide. Lateral sepals with an obliquely obovate-oblong, strongly concave lobule decurrent on the column-foot, front margins in the basal part connate, free parts divergent, obliquely subovate-oblong, obtuse, shortly obtusely apiculate, 0.27 cm long, in total 0.45 cm long, at the base 0.26 cm wide, free part 0.15 cm wide; mentum pointing backwards, forming an acute angle with the ovary, slightly dorsally incurved, compressed, in lateral view oblong, in front view shortly club-shaped, apex transversely inflated, retuse, along the dorsal side 0.15 cm long and wide. Petals convex, obliquely lanceolate-elliptic, long acuminate, acute, towards the base slightly contracted, 1-nerved, 0.32 cm long, about 0.1 cm wide. Lip concave, recurved above the base, otherwise somewhat incurved, in lateral view somewhat sigmoid, convex below, when flattened at the base shortly clawed, subelliptic, apex triangular-narrowed and thickened, somewhat acute, in total about 0.4 cm long, at the base 0.08 cm wide, blade 0.3 cm long, 0.17 cm wide, for the greater part thin, in about upper 1/3 thickened, ciliolate except at the base and the apex, 3-nerved, in basal 3/5 with two parallel, thin, ciliolate keels, with a third keel in between extending from the base to the apex. Column in outline oblong-quadrangular, towards the apex somewhat dilated, bipartite to 1/3 above the base, at the base somewhat narrowed, below longitudinally channeled, 0.16 cm long, arms porrect, widely separated, oblong, rounded, inside concave, outside convex. Anther somewhat shorter than the arms, cucullate, suborbicular, 0.07 cm wide, convex, in the basal part on either side dilated into an obliquely rounded lobule. Column-foot making a sharp angle with the ovary, straight, linear, 0.1 cm long, apex obtusely incurved, free from the lateral sepals, 0.05 cm long. Ovary pubescent, apex strongly oblique, 0.3 cm long. (After Smith, 1935)
Colours: Flower violet.
Habitat: Epiphyte in upper montane forest in shaded positions. Altitude 2500 m.
Flowering time in the wild: October.
Distribution: Malesia (New Guinea, endemic).
Distribution in New Guinea: Papua (Indonesia). See map: 125-90M.JPG
Cultivation: Cool growing epiphyte, keep in shade.