Zeuxine strateumatica

Zeuxine strateumatica (L.) Schltr., Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 45 (1911) 394

Basionym: Orchis strateumatica

Terrestrial, erect, small, 13-20 cm high. Rhizome ascending, stem-like; roots flexuose, puberulous. Stem leafy, terete, glabrous. Leaves erect or suberect, linear or lanceolate-linear, usually with revolute margins, glabrous, up to 5 cm long, below the middle 0.3-0.4 cm wide, at the base dilated and clasping the stem. Rachis densely many-flowered, up to 5 cm long. Floral bracts erect-patent, ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, more or less surpassing the ovary, glabrous. Flowers erect-patent. Sepals ovate, obtuse, glabrous, 0.35 cm long. Lateral sepals oblique. Petals at the base very shortly clawed, obliquely lanceolate-ligulate, obtuse, glabrous, at the base along the front margin dilated into a rounded lobed, a little shorter than the median sepal and along their inner margins adhering to it. Lip as long as the petals, at the base oblong-cucullate, margins above the base inflexed, forming a somewhat narrower, decurved, 0.15 cm long claw, in front dilated into a subreniform, apically notched lobe 0.1 by 0.15 cm, lip above near the base of the claw densely verruculose, inside at the base with two sometimes lobulate papillae. Column short; rostellum bifid, erect. Anther ovate-cordate, subobtuse; pollinia obliquely clavate; stipe oblanceolate-ligulate, longer than the pollinia, viscidium oblong, minute. Ovary cylindrical, glabrous, c. 0.5 cm long. (After Schlechter, 1911-1914, as Zeuxine wariana Schltr.)

Colours: Flowers reddish white, lip golden yellow.

Habitat: Terrestrial in heath-like grassland, seasonally wet shrubland and forest margins; 17 to 100 m.

Flowering time in the wild: April, July, August.

Distribution: Malesia (Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, ?Sulawesi, ?Lesser Sunda Islands, Moluccas, New Guinea, Philippines), Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Afghanistan, trop. Asia to Japan.

Distribution in New Guinea: Papua New Guinea. See map: 732-123M.JPG.

Cultivation: Warm growing terrestrial, requires light position.

%LABEL% (%SOURCE%)