Arachnis hookeriana (Rchb.f.) Rchb.f. 1886
Photo by © Sarah Thomas
Photo by © Tip of Texas Orchid Society and their Orchid Society Webpage
Common Name or Meaning Hooker's Arachnis [English Botanist 1800's] - The White Scorpion Orchid
Flower Size 3" [7.5 cm]
Found in Malaysia, Vietnam and Borneo on coastal rocks and scrub at elevations around sealevel as a giant sized, hot growing lithophye or epiphyte with an elongate stem carrying many, close set, stiff, obliquely ascending leaves that blooms in the fall on an erect, unbranched, to 24" [60 cm] long, dark purple, 6 to 8 flowered inflorescence with fleshy, very fragrant flowers.
The flower in the photo is var luteola which differs from the type by not having any purple to lilac coloring on the flower or on the green [not dark purple] inflorescence.
Synonyms Arachnanthe alba Ridl. 1893; Arachnis alba (Ridl.) Schltr. 1911; Arachnis canniformis (Guillaumin) Tang & F.T.Wang 1951; Renanthera alba (Ridl.) Ridl. 1896; *Renanthera hookeriana Rchb.f. 1862; Stauropsis canniformis Guillaumin 1930
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Xenia Orchidaceae vol 2 Rchb.f 1862 as Renanthera hookeriana drawing; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965 photo fide; Orchid Digest Vol 46 No 5 1982 photo fide; Rudolf Schlechter Die Orchideen Band 1B lieferung 22 1329 - 1392 Brieger 1989; The Orchids of Penninsular Malaysia and Singapore Wood & Seidenfaden 1992 drawing/photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 62 No 11 1993 photo fide; A Checklist of the Orchids of Borneo Wood & Cribb 1994; Identification of the Orchids [Orchidaceae Juss.] Vietnam Averyanov 1994 as A cannaeformis; Orchids of Borneo Vol 1 Chan, Lamb, Shin and Wood 1994 drawing/photo fide; Orchids of Sarawak Beeman & Wood 2001 photo fide; Genera Orchidacearum Vol 6 Epidendrodeaea Pt 3 Pridgeon, Cribb, Chase and Rasmussen 2014; AOS Bulletin Vol 88 #3 2019 photo ok;
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