Podochilus anguinus

Podochilus anguinus Schltr., Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 58 (1922) 88

Type: Ledermann 5758 (syn B, lost); 7551 (syn B, lost; K '7571')

Epiphytic, creeping, branched, 20-30 cm long. Stems and branches filiform, flexuose, densely leafy, densely covered with the leaf-sheaths, more or less terete, glabrous. Leaves erect-patent, linear, 0.3-0.5 cm long, subobtuse, twisted, apparently equitant, 3-4 times longer than the sheaths. Inflorescence apical, only slightly surpassing the leaves, laxly few-flowered. Floral bracts ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, the lower ones longer than the ovary, the upper ones gradually becoming shorter. Flowers glabrous. Sepals ovate, 0.15 cm long, subacute. Lateral sepals strongly oblique, at the base along the front margin dilated; mentum semioblong, broadly obtuse, about half as long as the sepals. Petals narrowly and obliquely elliptic-spathulate, subacute, almost as long as the sepals. Lip at the base shortly peltate-clawed, oblong-quadrangular, 0.2 cm long, in the middle and in the apical third slightly constricted, below the point of attachment extended into a very small, quadrangular, shortly bilobulate appendage, glabrous. Column short, foot curved; rostellum deeply bifid, inside with a somewhat shorter tooth; pollinia 4, obliquely obovoid; stipes 2, viscidia 2, minute. Ovary shortly pedicellate, clavate, 0.15 cm long, glabrous. (After Schlechter, 1922)

Colours: Flower white.

Habitat: Epiphyte in lowland forest; 200 to 400 m.

Flowering time in the wild: June.

Distribution: Malesia (New Guinea).

Distribution in New Guinea: Papua New Guinea. See map: 568-4M.JPG.

Cultivation: Warm growing epiphyte.

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