Octarrhena aporoides (Schltr.) Schuit., Blumea 48 (2003) 512
Basionym: Chitonanthera aporoides
Epiphytic, pendulous, up to 25 cm long, several-stemmed. Rhizome very short; roots filiform, glabrous. Stem flexuose, thin, densely leafy, entirely covered by the equitant leaf-sheaths, unbranched. Leaves erect-patent, falcate-linear, acute, equitant, including the sheath 1.5-2.5 cm long, at the base [0.2] 0.25-0.35 cm wide. Inflorescences short, including the short peduncle 0.7-1 cm long, laxly 2-3-flowered. Floral bracts ovate, acute, somewhat surpassing or equalling the ovary. Flowers minute. Sepals oblong, subobtuse, glabrous, [0.2] 0.28 cm long. Lateral sepals oblique. Petals oblong, obtuse, very minutely papillose, about [one eighth to one seventh] one sixth as long as the sepals. Lip ligulate, gradually somewhat narrowed towards the apex, glabrous, obtuse, about as long as the sepals. Column thick, short, very minutely papillose, clinandrium abruptly bent backwards, dorsally deeply bifid. Anther reniform-cucullate, apiculate; pollinia 4, obliquely oblongoid; stipe distinct; viscidium linear, minute. Ovary cylindrical, glabrous, c. [0.1] 0.2 cm long. (After Schlechter, 1911-1914, as Chitonanthera aporoides Schltr.; measurements between square brackets taken from the description of C. oberonioides)
Colours: Flowers brownish, lip and column green (type specimen of Chitonanthera aporoides), or flower yellow-brown with dark brown lip and column (type specimen of C. oberonioides).
Habitat: Epiphyte in upper montane forest; 1800 to 2400 m.
Flowering time in the wild: May, October, November.
Distribution: Malesia (New Guinea, endemic).
Distribution in New Guinea: Papua New Guinea. See map: 486-63M.JPG.
Cultivation: Cool growing epiphyte.