Ceratostylis obscureviolacea Gilli, Ann. Naturhist. Mus. Wien 84, B (1980 publ. 1983) 21, fig. 8
Type: Gilli 475 (holo W)
Erect, caespitose, 20-40 cm high. Rhizome very short, covered with sheaths. Roots filiform, elongated, flexuose. Stems at the base covered with clasping sheaths, otherwise naked, filiform, terete, glabrous, at the apex 1-leaved, 5-30 cm long, 0.05-0.1 cm thick. Leaf terete, filiform, acute, sometimes above narrowly linear, 8-15 cm long, as wide as the stem. Floral head at apex of the stem, sessile, few- or several-flowered, dense. Floral bracts ovate-lanceolate. Flowers (excluding the ovary) 0.5-0.7 cm long. Sepals outside sparsely pilose. Median sepal broadly ovate-lanceolate, rather obtuse, 0.2-0.3 cm long. Lateral sepals oblique, as long as the median sepal; mentum 0.4 cm long, obtuse. Petals lanceolate, subacute, hardly shorter than the sepals. Lip at the base unguiculate spathulate, above the claw strongly dilated, almost 3-lobed, including the 0.25 cm long claw 0.5 cm long, 0.2 cm wide. Stelidia of the column arising in front below the stigma, free, surpassing the anther. Anther bilobulate. Ovary shortly pedicellate, 0.2-0.4 cm long, sparsely pilose. (After Gilli, 1983).
Colours: Floral bract white. Flower dull purplish.
Habitat: Epiphyte in upper montane forest. Altitude 2950 m.
Flowering time in the wild: February.
Distribution: Malesia (New Guinea, endemic).
Distribution in New Guinea: Papua New Guinea.
Cultivation: Cool growing epiphyte.