Bulbophyllum blaoense Tich & Diep ex Aver. & Tich 2015 SECTION Cirrhopetalum [Lindl.] Rchb.f 1861
TYPE Photo/Drawing by Averyanov © and Taiwania 61(4):319-354 November 2016, New Species of Orchids (Orchidaceae) in the Flora of Vietnam Averyanov, Nong, Nguyen and Truong
EARLIER 
Common Name or Meaning The Blao Forest Bulbophyllum [A Forest in Vietnam]
Flower Size
Found in southern Vietnam in primary and old secondary broad-leaved evergreen submontane forests on shale, sandstone and granite at elevations around 800 to 900 meters as a mini-miniature sized, warm growing epiphyte with a stout, creeping, rigid, semi-woody, simple to occasionally branching rhizomr with .4 to 1.2" [1 to 3 cm] between each suberect, broadly ovoid to almost globular to slightly oblate, pale green to dull yellowish-brown, longitudinally wrinkled pseudobulbs carrying a single, apcial, erect to slightly arching, thick, rigid, broadly lanceolate to narrowly ovate, acute to shortly unequally bilobulate, narrowing below into a cylindric, channeled, petiolate base leaf that blooms in the earlier spring on a basal, dark to light green, sometimes mottled with dirty purple towards the apex, ascending to erect, peduncle 2.8 to 4.8" [7 to 12 cm] long, rachis .08 to .14" [2 to 4 mm] long, in an umbel, 1 to 5 flowered inflorescence with whitish scarius, straight, cuneate, slightly concave, acuminate, shorter than the ovary floral bracts and carrying horizontlly spreading to slightly pendulous flowers.
"B blaoense is close to the poorly known B. chinense [Lindl.] Rchb f described from China, from which it differs in the small, highly reduced pseudobulbs, the few flowered inflorescence, smaller and much longer lateral sepals, the column broadening at the apex and short, insignificant dent-like [not long, subulate] stelidia. It is also related to B. longiflorum Thouars [= B. eberhardtii] Gagnep. [Seidenf.] common in southern Vietnam, but it distinctly differs in many characters including its dwarf habit, few flowered umbel, reduced pseudobulbs, small ?owers, non-aristate median sepal, simple lip without distinct ears and simple, insignificant stelidia." Averyanov 2015
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; *Wulfenia 22 [2015]: 137 - 188 New Orchids in the Flora of Vietnam Averyanov, Nguyen, Tich, Nguyen, Nong, Nguyen and Xuan Drawing/photo fide
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