Calanthe fissa L.O.Williams, Bot. Mus. Leafl. 12 (1946) 161
Type: Clemens 12093 (AMES)
Slender, erect, terrestrial herbs up to about 60 cm tall. Stems short, tough. Leaves narrowed to a petiole at the base; blade 25-40 by 2.5-4 cm, linear-elliptic, acute or acuminate, with seven to nine main nerves; petiole 20-35 cm long, tough. Inflorescence up to about 80 cm. long, stalked, slender, many-flowered in the upper part, glabrous. Floral bracts 1-2 cm. long, linear to linear-lanceolate, acute. Rachis compact, 10-20 cm long, up to 50-flowered. Sepals about 1-1.2 by 0.5-0.6 cm, broadly oblanceolate to elliptic, acute, 5-nerved, cucullate. Petals 1-1.2 by 0.3-0.4 cm, oblanceolate, obtuse, 3-nerved, adnate to the column at the base for about 0.4 cm by their front margins. Lip finger-like 3-lobed, spurred; lateral lobes somewhat spreading, 0.8-1 by 0.2-0.3 cm, linear, obtuse; mid-lobe about 1 by 0.25 cm, linear, bilobulate to about the middle, the lobules parallel and acute; blade at the tip of the column with several small calli in three lines; spur 0.8-1 cm long, slender, obtuse. Column typical for the genus. (After Williams, 1946).
Colours: Flowers pale green, lip white.
Habitat: Terrestrial. Altitude 1800 m.
Flowering time in the wild: April.
Distribution: Malesia (New Guinea, endemic).
Distribution in New Guinea: Papua New Guinea. See map: 101-126M.JPG
Cultivation: Cool growing terrestrial.