Habenaria khasiana Hook.f. 1890 SECTION Acuiferae
Photo by © Tripetch P. and the Thai Nature Website
Another Flower Photo by © . Trekking Thai Website Common Name The Khasia Hills Habenaria [An Area of northeastern India]
Flower Size .4 to .6" [1 to 1.5 cm] [excluding the side lobes of the lip]
Found in Assam, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam in dipterocarp and pine forests as well as savannahs at elevations of sealevel to 1300 meters as a miniature to small sized, hot to cool growing terrestrial with an erect stem carrying 3 to 5, basal, grass-like, erect to suberect, linear-oblong, acute, mucronate leaves grading above into erect, lanceolate, acuminate sterile bracts that blooms in the summer on an erect, terminal, glabrous, 2.8 to 12" [7 to 30 cm] long, lax, 3 to 10 flowered inflorescence with a .8 to 4" [2 to 10 cm] long, rachis carrying, lanceolate, acuminte, less than half as long as the ovary floral bracts
"Habenaria khasiana appears to be similar to H. rumphii as both share similar habit
and general flower morphology. In both species we can observe a similar lip shape,
especially upcurved lateral lobes. Leaves of H. khasiana are short (up to 2" vs up tto 6.8" [5 cm vs up to
17 cm]), the inflorescence is laxly few-flowered (vs densely many-flowered), flowers can be
larger, the lip middle lobe shorter than the lateral lobes (vs middle lobe longer than laterals)
and a distinctly longer spur .32 to .68" vs .04 to .24" (8 to 17 mm long vs 1 to 6 mm). The flowers of H. khasiana are
uniformly green, whereas the color range of H. rumphii flowers is much wider—from
white, through dull green to purple.
H. khasiana can easily be distinguished from H. lamii by the upcurved lip lateral lobes
(vs pendent), much shorter floral bract reaching up to .2" [5 mm], shorter than pedicellate ovary vs .56" [14 mm] long, longer than pedicellate ovary), and larger flowers." Kolanowska etal 2021
Synonyms Habenaria graminea Lindl. 1835; Habenaria graminifolia Gagnep.1931
References W3 Tropicos,Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
Gen. Sp. Orchid. Pl.: 318 Lindley 1835 as H graminea nom. illeg.
* Fl. Brit. India 6: 151 Hooker 1890 Bull. Soc. Bot. France 78: 70 Gagnep. 1931 as Habenaria graminifolia nom. illeg.
The Orchids of Thailand Seidenfaden & Smitnand 1959 as H graminifolia fig 22 drawing good; Bulletin du Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle % No 71 Seidenfaden 1972 as H graminifolia; Dansk Botanisk Arkiv Bind 31 #3 Orchid Genera in Thailand V Orchidoideae Seidenfaden 1977 drawing fide; Orchids of India A Glimpse Misra 2007; Flora Of Thailand Orchidaceae Vol 12 Part 1 Pedersen, Kurzweil, Suddee & Cribb 2011 drawing/photo fide; Checklist of Papusian Orchids Ormerod 2017; --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
