Habenaria arietina Hook.f. 1890 SECTION Macroceratitis
Photos by © Peter O'Byrne
To 
Common Name The Ram's Horn Habenaria - In China Mao Ban Yu Feng Hua
Flower Size 1.6 to 2" [3 to 5 cm]
Found in the Chinese Himalayas, western Himalayas, Assam, eastern Himalayas, Nepal and Vietnam on grassy slopes at elevations of 1500 to 3600 meters as a small to medium sized, cool to cold growing terrestrial with a fusiform tuber giving rise to a leafy, wide at the base tapering above stem and carrying distichous, distant, lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, acute to subacuminate, sessile, becoming smaller up the stem leaves that blooms in the summer on a glabrous, 6 to 7.2" [15 to 18 cm] long, subdensely many flowered inflorescence with leaf-like, narrowly lanceolate, acute, 5 veined bracts and carrying long-lasting, fragrant flowers.
This species is within a group of similar orchids consisiting of H intermedia, H davidii, H ensifolia, H limprichtii, H triquetra, H yueana, H mairei and H pectinata which all have trilobed lips with the two lateral sides with fringe.
Synonyms Habenaria ensifolia var. gigantea (Pradhan) P.K.Sarkar 1984; Habenaria ensifolia var. khasiensis (Pradhan) P.K.Sarkar 1984; Habenaria intermedia var. arietina (Hook.f.) Finet 1901; Habenaria pectinata var. arietina (Hook.f.) Kraenzl 1898; Habenaria pectinata var. gigantea Pradhan 1979; Habenaria pectinata var. khasiensis Pradhan 1979; Ochyrorchis arietina (Hook.f.) Szlach. 2004
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Fl. Brit. India 6: 138 Hooker 1890
A Century of Indian Orchids Vol 5 Hooker 1895
A Century of Indian Orchids Vol 5 Hooker 1895 drawing fide;
Orchid. Gen. Sp. 1: 405 Kraenzlin 1898 as H pectinata var arietina;
The Orchids of Sikkim-Himalaya Part 1 King & Pantling 1898 drawing fide;
Rev. Gén. Bot. 13: 530 Finet 1901 as H intermedia var arietina;
The Orchids of North-Western Himalaya Vol IX Part II Duthie 1906;
Flore Generale de Indo-Chine Volume 6 Gagnepain 1934;
Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965;
Beautiful Indian Orchids Ghose 1968;
Contributions to a Revision of the Orchid Flora of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam Seidenfaden 1975;
Guide to Identification and Culture Pradhan 1976 as H pectinata var arientina drawing ok;
Guide to Identification and Culture Pradhan 1979 as H pectinata var gigantea;
Guide to Identification and Culture Pradhan 1979 as H pectinata var khasiensis;
Dansk Botanisk Arkiv Orchid Genera in Thailand V Orchioideae Seidenfaden 1977;
J. Econ. Taxon. Bot. 5: 1008 P K Sarkar 1984 as H ensifolia var gigantea;
J. Econ. Taxon. Bot. 5: 1008 P K Sarkar 1984 as H ensifolia var khasiensis;
Orchids of North West Himalaya Deva & Naithani 1986 drawing fide;
Orchids of Kumaun Himalayas Pangtey, Samant and Rawat 1991;
Identification of the Orchids [Orchidaceae Juss.] Vietnam Averyanov 1994;
Orchids of Nagaland Deorani & Naithani 1995;
Beautiful Orchids of Nepal Rajbhandari & Bhattarai 2001 photo fide;
Orchids of Bhutan Pearce & Cribb 2002;
Richardiana 4: 53Szlachetko 2004 as Ochyrorchis arietina;
100 Sikkim Himalayan Orchids Pradhan 2005 photo fide;
Orchids of India A Glimpse Misra 2007; Flora of China Vol 25 Zhengyi, Raven & Deyuan 2009;
LANKESTERIANA 15(1): 7—50. Jeewan Singh Jalal & J. Jayanthi 2015;
Terrestrial Orchids Swami 2016 photo fide;
Handbook Orchids of Sikkim and Northeast India Pradhan 2016 photo fide;
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