Photos by © Naresh Swami and Orchids of Sikkim Himalayas/Memoirs of an Orchid Hunter Website

Drawing

Pantlings original drawing of Habenaria juncea

Drawings by © R Pantling and Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website

What was Platanthera juncea

Photos by © Naresh Swami and Orchids of Sikkim Himalayas/Memoirs of an Orchid Hunter Website

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Common Name The Slender Stemmed Peristylus - In China Xiao Qiao Kuo Rui Lan

Flower Size .08 to .15" [2 to 3 mm]

Found in the Chinese Himalayas, eastern Himalayas, Nepal, Myanmar and Thailand on moist alpine slopes and in rhododendron forests in shade at elevations around 2700 to 3660 meters as a miniature to small sized, cold growing terrestrial with a cylindric-fusiform, pubescent tuber giving rise to an erect, slender stem with subbasal, bracteate leaves becoming ebracteate above and linear-lanceolate, acute stem bracts and carrying a single, oblong to oblong-elliptic, subacute, sessile leaf that blooms in the late spring and summer on a glabrous, 1.4 to 3.6" [3.5 to 9 cm] long, laxly 7 to 12 flowered inflorescence with lanceolate, subacute to obtuse floral bracts.

CAUTION I find it hard to believe that the 2 species represented here are considered to be conspecific if the 2 determinations are correct. P nematocaulon with its white flowers and no visible spur versus P juncea with its small lax green flowers with a short bulbous spur. Hmm I need someone that knows both plants to explain the similaritites.

Synonyms Habenaria juncea King & Pantl. 1896; *Habenaria nematocaulon Hook.f. 1890; Platanthera juncea (King & Pantl.) Kraenzl. 1901; Platanthera nematocaulon (Hook.f.) Kraenzl. 1901

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; The Orchids of Sikkim-Himalaya Part 1 King & Pantling 1898 as Habenaria juncea drawing ok; *The Orchids of Sikkim-Himalaya Part 1 King & Pantling 1898 as Habenaria nematocaulon drawing fide; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965 as Platanthera juncea; Indian Orchids A Field Guide to Identification and Culture Vol 1 Pradhan 1976 as Habenaria nematocaulon drawing fide; Indian Orchids: Guide to Identification and Culture Pradhan 1976 as Platanthera juncea drawing fide; Kew Bulletin Vol 41 #4 Notes on Asiatic and New Guinea Orchidaceae J J Wood 1986 Drawing fide Orchids of Bhutan Pearce & Cribb 2002; Orchids of India A Glimpse Misra 2007; Flora of China Vol 25 Zhengyi, Raven & Deyuan 2009; Atlas of Native Orchids of China Vol 1 Jin Xiaohua, Li Jianwu and Ye Deping 2019 as Platanthera nematocaulonphoto fide

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