Pseudovanilla montigena

Pseudovanilla montigena (Schltr.) Ormerod, Oasis 2, 1 (2001) 6

Basionym: Galeola montigena

Tall leafless climber; roots filiform, elongated, flexuose, glabrous. Stem flexuose, branching, terete, glabrous, to 0.7 cm diam.; scales oblong, obtuse, to 1.3 cm long, c. 15 cm apart, somewhat rigid. Inflorescence very large, branching, laxly many-flowered, the branches at the apices densely 10-15-flowered, the rachis slightly swollen. Floral bracts deltoid, obtuse, minute. Flowers erect-patent. Sepals oblong-ligulate, 2.2 by 0.7 cm, obtuse, mid-vein outside slightly thickened. Lateral sepals oblique. Petals narrowly falcate-ligulate, obtuse, glabrous, as long as the sepals, 0.4 cm wide. Lip broadly obovate, with its very base adnate to the column, 2.2 by 1.7 cm, at the apex slightly notched and apiculate, in apical half strongly undulate, inside with irregular protuberances and in the basal half densely covered with numerous warts; median linear, slightly dilated above the middle, glabrous, extending from the base of the lip to the apex. Column semiterete, glabrous, towards the apex gradually slightly dilated, glabrous, 1.8 cm long; clinandrium entire. Anther deeply cucullate, dorsally bilobulate, glabrous, apex retuse. Ovary cylindrical, glabrous, 1.2 cm long. (After Schlechter, 1911-1914)

Colours: Flowers yellow, lip orange-red, at the apex white, the warts with yellow tips.

Habitat: Terrestrial in forest; 800 m.

Flowering time in the wild: September.

Distribution: Malesia (New Guinea).

Distribution in New Guinea: Papua New Guinea. See map: 590-9M.JPG.

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