Thrixspermum platystachys (F.M.Bailey) Schltr., Orchis 5 (1911) 55
Basionym: Sarcochilus platystachys
Epiphytic, ascending, unbranched, 10-15 cm high; roots filiform, elongated, flexuose, glabrous. Stem short, somewhat flattened, leafy, entirely covered with the tightly clasping leaf-sheaths, glabrous. Leaves erect-patent or patent, narrowly oblong-lanceolate, ligulate, apex shortly and unequally bilobulate, at the base somewhat narrowed, rather thick, 6-11 cm long, near the middle 1.5-2.5 cm wide. Inflorescence slender, pedunculate, longer than the leaves; peduncle terete, glabrous; rachis flattened, bracts bilaterally flattened, distichous, ovate, falcate, acute, shorter than the ovary. Flowers opening one by one. Sepals narrowly lanceolate, elongated-sharply acute, 3 cm long, glabrous. Lateral sepals at the base oblique. Petals similar to the sepals and equally long, but narrower, somewhat oblique. Lip at the base concave, oblong-cuneate, 3-lobed, c. 1.3 cm long, to the tips of the lateral lobes 1 cm long; lateral lobes obliquely triangular-oblong, obtuse; mid-lobe almost twice as long as the lateral lobes, triangular-ovate, obtuse; lip inside glabrous; at the very base with an oblong callus, above the base with a bilobed callus. Column short; rostellum deeply emarginate, very short, pollinia obliquely oblong; stipe short square-oblong; viscidium transverse, very small. Ovary subcylindrical, glabrous, c. 1.2 cm long. (After Schlechter, 1905)
Colours: Flower yellowish, lip in the middle with brown dots.
Habitat: Epiphyte in lowland forest; 10 to 460 m.
Flowering time in the wild: May, June.
Distribution: Malesia (New Guinea), Australia, Solomon Islands.
Distribution in New Guinea: Papua New Guinea. See map: 690-175M.JPG.
Cultivation: Warm growing epiphyte.