Arachnanthe bella (Rchb.f.) C.H.Wright & Dewar 1894

ANother Flower Photo courtesy of David Jubineau Copyright ©

Common Name The Beautiful Arachnanthe - In China Kou Gai Hua Zhi Zhu Lan

Flower Size 2" [5 cm]

Found in southeastern Xizang, and southern Yunnan provinces of China, the eastern Himalayas, Nepal, Myanmar, Vietnam and Thailand on tree trunks in open forests at elevations of 1700 to 1800 meters as a small to just medium sized, cool growing epiphyte with a stout, rigid stem carrying many, sparsely distichous, narrowly oblong, leathery, obtuse, unequally bilobed apically leaves that blooms in the fall on often 2 to 3, axillary, ascending, racemose, 5 to 7.2" [12.5 to 18 cm] long, sparsely 2 to 3 flowered inflorescence with 3 to 6, tubular sheaths and broadly ovate floral bracts

CAUTION To the best of my knowledge this determination is correct but all references are very convoluted for this species and A clarkei and I am at a loss to figure out which is which. In fact for years A bella has been considered to be a synonym of A clarkei but if you look at the pictures of both species you can see that they are quite different. See below Arachnanthe clarkei Rchb. f. s. l. (Averyanov, 2006) regarding its probable synonymy with E. bella Rchb. f. However, later some taxonomists accept these species as separate taxa (Chen, Wood, 2009). Subquadrate lip side lobes, truncate at apex and disk with moveable lidlike appendage at the base were reported as the main morphological characteristics separating E. bella from E. clarkei. These characters well fits the studied Vietnamese specimens; hence, their re-identification as E. bella is proposed here as a new record for the flora of Vietnam. At the same time, E. bella remains a poorly studied, extremely rare species. Except northwestern Vietnam, it is expected to occur in Nepal, northeastern India, Myanmar, northern Thailand and in southwestern China (Chen, Wood, 2009). However, its distribution and morphological variation needs further studies as presently available herbarium collections are very scarce." TUAN & Averyanov 2017

Synonyms Arachnis bella (Rchb.f.) J.J.Sm.1912; *Esmeralda bella Rchb.f. 1888

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Flora of China Vol 25 Zhengyi, Raven & Deyuan 2009; The Wild Orchids in Yunnan Xu Xiang Ye & Liu 2010 photos fide; Atlas of Native Orchids of China Vol 2 Jin Xiaohua, Li Jianwu and Ye Deping 2019 photo fide; Turczaninowia 20 (1): 68–74 Two endangered ornamental orchid species, Bulbophyllum coweniorum and Esmeralda bella (Orchidaceae), new in the flora of Vietnam Nguyen Hoang Tuan, L. V. Averyanov 2017 photo fide

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