Peristylus fallax Lindl. 1835

Photo by © Peter O'Byrne and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website

Partial sun ColdLATERSpring THROUGH Summer

Common Name The Deceptive Platanthera [refers to this species affinities to the genus Herminium] - In China Pan Xian Kuo Rui Lan

Flower Size .12" to 1.6" [3 to 4 mm]

Found in the western Himalayas, Chinese Himalayas, the eastern Himalayas and Nepal in open grasslands and on grassy banks at elevations around 2100 to 4000 meters as a small to medium sized, cold growing terrestrial with a small, ellipsoid tuber giving rise to an erect, glabrous, leaf borne at middle, bracteate above stem with 2 basal, tubular, overlapping, lanceolate, acuminate-caudate sheaths and carrying 1 occasionally 2, , acute , linear to linear-lanceolate, basally clasping leaves that blooms in the later spring through summer on an erect, terminal, glabrous, 1 to 4" [2.5 to 10 cm] long, laxly few to many flowered inflorescence with linear-lanceolate to lanceolate, acuminate to subcaudate floral bracts.

Synonyms Habenaria fallax (Lindl.) King & Pantl. 1898; Herminium fallax (Lindl.) Hook.f. 1890; Monorchis fallax (Lindl.) O.Schwarz 1949; Peristylus fallax var. dwarikae Deva & H.B.Naithani 1986; Platanthera fallax (Lindl.) Schltr. 1919

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Icones Vol 22 Hokker 1894 as Herminium fallax drawing fide; The Orchids of Sikkim-Himalaya Part 1 King & Pantling 1898 as Habenaria fallax drawing fide; The Orchids of North-Western Himalaya Vol IX Part II Duthie 1906 as Habenaria fallax; Indian Orchids: Guide to Identification and Culture Pradhan 1976 drawing fide; Orchids of Bhutan Pearce & Cribb 2002; Flora of China Vol 25 Orchidaceae Zhengyi, Raven and Duyuan 2009; Flora of China Illustrations Vol 25 Orchidaceae Zhengyi, Raven and Duyuan 2010 drawing fide; LANKESTERIANA 15(1): 7—50. Jeewan Singh Jalal & J. Jayanthi 2015; Atlas of Native Orchids of China Vol 1 Jin Xiaohua, Li Jianwu and Ye Deping 2019 photo fide

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