Eurycentrum salomonense Schltr. in K.Schum. & Lauterb., Nachtr. Fl. Deutsch. Schutzgeb. Südsee (1905) 90
Type: Guppy 78
Terrestrial, erect, 20-35 cm high. Stem rather thick, leafy above the base, glabrous. Leaves erect 4-7, crowded, oblique, lanceolate to ovate, acuminate, glabrous, petiolate, 4-8 cm long, in basal half 1.5-2.8 cm wide, petiole towards the base conspicuously dilated and cucullate-clasping, 1.5-2 cm long. Inflorescence with distant, lanceolate, acuminate scales, towards the rachis minutely glandulose-puberulous, rachis rather laxly 8-20-flowered. Floral bracts linear-lanceolate, acuminate, 0.4-0.9 cm long, outside minutely puberulous. Flowers erect-patent, secund. Median sepal ovate, acuminate, concave, 0.2-0.3 by 0.2-0.25 cm, outside minutely glandulose-puberulous. Lateral sepals obliquely ovate-lanceolate, 0.35-0.5 by 0.2-0.25 cm, acuminate, outside minutely glandulose-puberulous. Petals obliquely lanceolate-oblong, rather obtuse, along the upper half of the front margin and the lower half of the back margin slightly dilated, 0.3-0.4 by 0.1 cm long. Lip indistinctly 3-lobed, concave, 0.3-0.5 by 0.15-0.2 cm, lateral lobes rounded-triangular, mid-lobe very small, shortly clawed, ovate, obtuse, 0.1 by 0.1 cm; spur compressed, cylindrical-conical, 0.4 cm long, 0.2 cm wide. Column 0.1 cm long. Anther in front slightly 2-umbonate. Ovary cylindrical, glandulose-puberulous, 0.4-0.8 cm long. (After Schlechter, 1905; Lewis and Cribb, 1991).
Colours: Leaves blackish, very dark green or purple with a pink mid-vein above, purple below. Flower whitish with a reddish median sepal.
Habitat: Terrestrial. Altitude 5-200 m.
Flowering time in the wild: October.
Distribution: Malesia (New Guinea), Solomon Is.
Distribution in New Guinea: Papua New Guinea. See map: 298-7M.JPG
Cultivation: Warm growing terrestrial, requires shaded position.