Platanthera pachycaulon (Hook.f.) Soó 1929
Photos by © Naresh Swami
Drawing by © R Pantling and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website
LATE
THROUGH EARLY 
Common Name The Broad Stemmed Platanthera - In China Gao Yuan She Chun Lan
Flower Size .2" to .32" [5 to 7 mm]
Found in the Chinese Himalayas, the eastern Himalayas and Nepal at elevations around 3000 to 4500 meters as a mini-miniature to small sized, cold growing terrestrial with a fusiform tuber giving rise to an erect, slender stem with a basal tubular sheath and carrying 1, occasionally 2, sessile, subacute, elliptic to oblong-elliptic leaves that blooms in the late spring through early fall on an erect, terminal, 2 to 4" [5 to 10 cm] long, 8 to 15 flowered inflorescence with linear-lanceolate to lanceolate, acute floral bracts.
Synonyms Habenaria oligantha Hook.f. 1890; *Habenaria pachycaulon Hook.f. 1890; Platanthera elachyantha Tang & F.T.Wang 1951; Platanthera exelliana Soó 1929
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; The Orchids of Sikkim-Himalaya Part 1 King & Pantling 1898 as Habenaria oligantha drawing fide; Indian Orchids A Field Guide to Identification and Culture Vol 1 Pradhan 1976 as Habenaria oligantha drawing fide; The Orchids of Bhutan Pearce & Cribb 2002; Flora of China Vol 25 Orchidaceae Zhengyi, Raven and Duyuan 2009 as Pexelliana; LANKESTERIANA 15(1): 7—50. Jeewan Singh Jalal & J. Jayanthi 2015 as H pachycaulon; Atlas of Native Orchids of China Vol 1 Jin Xiaohua, Li Jianwu and Ye Deping 2019 as P excelliana photo fide
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