Microtatorchis chaetophora

Microtatorchis chaetophora Schltr., Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 1 (1913) 1008

Type: Schlechter 20081 (holo B, lost)

Epiphytic, erect, c. 8 cm high, stemless. Roots filiform, glabrous. Leaves 2-3, elliptic-lanceolate, apiculate, c. 2 cm long, near the middle c. 0.4 cm wide. Inflorescence curved, rather densely 10-15-flowered, rachis sparsely covered with bristle-like appendages. Floral bracts leaf-like, lanceolate-elliptic, aristate-acuminate, surpassing the flowers, at the base on either side with a bristle-like appendage. Flowers glabrous. Sepals and petals lanceolate, acuminate, keeled outside, in basal third connate into a tube. Lateral sepals oblique. Lip almost as long as the sepals, lanceolate, acuminate, in the middle on either side with an incurved lobule; spur globose, slightly more than a fourth as long as the lip. Column very short, with two horn-like auricles. Anther cordate-cucullate, in front retuse; pollinia obliquely oblongoid; stipe slightly shorter, at the base slender, upwards very broadly obovate; viscidium oblong, a little smaller than the pollinia. Ovary 6-ribbed, 0.35 cm long. (After Schlechter, 1911-1914)

Colours: Flowers yellowish green.

Habitat: Epiphyte in lower montane forest; 800 m.

Flowering time in the wild: September.

Distribution: Malesia (New Guinea, endemic).

Distribution in New Guinea: Papua New Guinea. See map: 449-10M.JPG.

Cultivation: Intermediate growing epiphyte.

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