Ceratostylis calceiformis R.S.Rogers, Trans. & Proc. Roy. Soc. South Australia 49 (1925) 257
Type: Lane-Poole 361 (holo BRI)
Epiphytic, caespitose, erect. Rhizome very short. Roots filiform, flexuose, very hairy. Stems terete, rush-like, very slender, longitudinally sulcate, glabrous, 20-30 cm. long, covered at the base with many long, lanceolate, membranous sheaths. Leaf single, terminal, continuous with the stem, erect or erect-patent, terete, glabrous, acute, sulcate, 10-15 cm long. Flowers minute, white, single (?), terminal, about 0.7 cm long (including mentum), surrounded by numerous acute membranous scales. Floral bracts small, obtuse, short, truncate, hyaline. Median sepal erect, elliptic or oblong-elliptic, subacute, 3-nerved, hardly 0.3 cm long, about 0.1 cm wide. Lateral sepals rather obtuse, falcate, 3-nerved above, long oblong-ligulate below, obliquely decurrent with the elongated foot of the column, their front margins free above for 0.2 cm, conspicuously produced and connate below, forming a long, curved, hairy, about 0.45 cm long, spur-like mentum bluntly dilated at the apex. Petals shorter and narrower than the median sepal, lanceolate, acute, 1-nerved, about 0.2 by 0.05 cm. Lip shortly clawed, erect, spathulate, about 0.6 cm long, 3-nerved, the base elongated, ligulate; the apex ovate-elliptically dilated, concave, slipper-shaped, fleshy, glabrous. Column short, deeply bipartite; the arms oblong-obtuse, about 0.4 cm long, reaching to about the middle of the dilated part of the blade of the lip. Ovary with pedicel slender, about 0.6 cm long, much exceeding the spur. (After Rogers, 1925).
Colours: Not recorded.
Habitat: Epiphyte in upper montane forest. Altitude 3000 m.
Flowering time in the wild: February.
Distribution: Malesia (New Guinea, endemic).
Distribution in New Guinea: Papua New Guinea. See map: 125-31M.JPG
Cultivation: Cool growing epiphyte.