Tainia rolfei P.F.Hunt 1971

Drawing

Photo by © Lamb/Drawing © by Turner

Common Name The Borneo Tainia

Flower Size .8" [2 cm] cm]

Found in Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Ambon and New Guinea in undergrowth of deciduous jungle , on steep hillsides and in open secondary forests at elevations around 270 to 1400 meters as a small to medium sized, hot to cool growing terrestrial with an erect, several noded, conical, purple pseudobulb carrying a single, apical, elliptic, slightly acuminate, margin not undulate, thin, 111 to 211 veined, gradually narrowing below into the long petiolate base leaf that blooms at most any time of the year on an erect, basal, 17.2 to 29.2 [43 to 73 cm] long, 5 to 12 flowered inflorescence with several open simultaneously

CAUTION Many sources including Kew put this species as a synonym of Tania penangiana but it has a less lax inflorescence, a deeply 3 lobed lip and a more arched column with a different apex, Tainia rolfei, syn Ania borneense, has a shallowly 3 lobed lip with a straight column with a different apex among other things. I as well as Turner 1992 feel these differences maintain its separation as a distinct species.

Synonyms Ania borneensis (Rolfe) Senghas 1984; Ascotainia borneensis Rolfe 1914;

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Orchid Monographs Vol 6 H Turner 1992 drawing/photo fide; The Plants of Mount Kinabalu Vol 2 Orchids Wood Beaman & Beaman 1993; Checklist of the Orchids of Borneo Wood & Cribb 1994;

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