Lecanorchis bicarinata Schltr., Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 58 (1922) 55
Type: Ledermann 9061; 9278; 9475a (all syn B, lost)
Terrestrial, holomycotrophic, slender, to 50 cm tall. Roots rather thick, flexuose. Stem unbranched or branched, straight or subflexuose, rigid, with small, distant, deltoid scales, terete, glabrous. Inflorescence rather laxly several-flowered, short. Floral bracts deltoid, obtuse, much shorter than the ovary. Flowers erect-patent. Sepals ligulate, 0.6 cm long, obtuse, somewhat dilated above the middle, glabrous. Lateral sepals somewhat oblique. Petals similar to the sepals but a little shorter, oblique. Lip adnate up to near the middle of the column, in outline pandurate-ligulate, above the middle 3-lobed, 0.6 cm long, 0.2 cm wide across the lateral lobes, with two puberulous keels extending from the base to the base of the mid-lobe; lateral lobes suborbicular, not surpassing the column; mid-lobe obovate-quadrate, 0.2 cm long, with crenulate margins, in front truncate-broadly obtuse, in the middle with a dense tuft of long hairs or clavate papillae. Column semiterete, 0.45 cm long, in front below the stigma puberulous, slender. Ovary slender, cylindrical, 1.1 cm long, calyculus with triangular, subobtuse teeth. (After Schlechter, 1922)
Colours: Stems blackish blue. Flowers outside grey, inside white.
Habitat: Terrestrial in lower montane forest; 850 m.
Flowering time in the wild: October.
Distribution: Malesia (New Guinea, endemic).
Distribution in New Guinea: Papua New Guinea. See map: 399-4M.JPG.
Cultivation: Parasite on fungi, impossible to cultivate under normal conditions.