Octarrhena falcifolia (Schltr.) Schuit., Blumea 48 (2003) 512
Basionym: Chitonanthera falcifolia
Epiphytic, spreading or pendulous, small, several-stemmed, to 30 cm high. Rots elongated, filiform, flexuose, glabrous. Stems flexuose, leafy, tightly covered by the ancipitous leaf-sheaths. Leaves erect or erect-patent, falcate, lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, acute to acuminate, equitant, articulated, 0.6-1 cm long, near the middle 0.2-0.3 cm wide, glabrous. Inflorescences arising from the leaf axils, very small, laxly 2- to 4-flowered, half as long as the leaves or less. Floral bracts minute, ovate, acuminate, about as long as the ovary. Flowers erect-patent. Sepals patent, oblong, obtuse, almost 0.2 cm long, glabrous. Lateral sepals somewhat oblique. Petals erect-patent, minute, linear-ligulate, obtuse, densely papillose, much smaller than the sepals. Lip deflexed, oblong-ligulate, somewhat narrowed to the base, obtuse, glabrous, smaller than the sepals, densely papillose. Column at the base conspicuously swollen, densely papillose; stigma transverse, narrow; clinandrium large, dorsally bifid, margins minutely ciliate. Anther minutely rounded, in front subobtuse. Ovary almost cylindrical, 0.2 cm long, glabrous. (After Schlechter, 1905 and Schlechter, 1911-1914)
Colours: Flowers salmon-orange with darker lip.
Habitat: Epiphyte in montane forest; 1100 to 2130 m.
Flowering time in the wild: January, May, June, July, August, September, November.
Distribution: Malesia (New Guinea, endemic).
Distribution in New Guinea: Papua New Guinea. See map: 486-65M.JPG.
Cultivation: Cool growing epiphyte.