Habenaria plantaginea Lindl.1835 SECTION Macroceratitis Kraenzl.

Photo courtesy of © Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Herbarium Jany Renz and their Website

LATE EARLY

Common Name The Platago-Like Habenaria [refers to it's similarity to the European Plantain which has similar leaves]

Flower Size .4 to .65" [1 to 1.6 cm]

Found in the western Himalayas, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, eastern Himalayas, Myanmar and Bali in moist deciduous forests at elevations around 850 to 2500 meters as a small to medium sized, warm to cold growing terrestrial with an ovoid-globose tuber giving rise to an erect, glabrous, bracteate stem carrying 3 to 7, sub basal, clustered, elliptic-oblong to oblong-lanceolate, subacute to acute, subsessile, basally clasping leaves that blooms in the late summer and early fall on an erect, laxly 5 to 9 flowered, glabrous, .8 to 2.8" [2 to 7 cm] long inflorescence with lanceolate, acuminate, largest towards the base, setaceous margined floral bracts carrying faintly fragrant flowers.

Synonyms Plantaginorchis plantaginea (Lindl.) Szlach. 2004

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; The Orchids of North-Western Himalaya Vol IX Part II Duthie 1906 drawing fide; Orchid Culture in Ceylon and the East Price 1918/2003; Orchids of Bombay Santapau & Kapadia 1966 Drawings fide; Indian Orchids A Field Guide to Identification and Culture Vol 1 Pradhan 1976 drawing fide; A Revised Handbook to the Flora of Ceylon Vol 2 Dassanayake & Fosberg 1981 drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 54 No 3 1985; Orchids of North West Himalaya Deva & Naithani 1986 drawing fide; Orchids of Nilgris Joseph 1987 drawing fide; Orchids of Kumaun Himalayas Pangtey, Samant and Rawat 1991; Orchids of Bhutan Pearce & Cribb 2002; The Orchids of India A Glimpse Misra 2007 drawing ok; Orchids of Odisha Misra 2014 drawing fide; LANKESTERIANA 15(1): 7—50. Jeewan Singh Jalal & J. Jayanthi 2015 photo fide; Lankesteriana Vol 18 [1]: 23–62 Jalal & Jayanth 2018; Orchids of Maharashtra Jalal 2018 photo Fide;

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