Platanthera sikkimensis (Hook.f.) Kraenzl. 1899

Photo by © S. Z. Lucksom and the Orchids of Sikkim and northeastern Himalayas

Common Name The Sikkim Platanthera = in China Chang Ban She Chun Lan

Flower Size .4 to .6" [1 to 1.5 cm]

Found in the Chinese Himalayas, eastern Himalayas, Sikkim, Bhutan and Nepal at elevations of 3000 to 3600 meters as a small sized, cold growing terrestrial with a globose tuber giving rise to a short, ebracteate above stem with imbricating, tubular, subacute basal sheaths and carrying 2 to 3, distant, oblong-elliptic, acuter sessile base leaves that blooms in the summer on an erect, glabrous, 2.4 to 4" [6 to 10 cm] long, laxly 6 to 10 flowered inflorescence with large, leaf-like, linear-lanceolate, acute to acuminate floral bracts.

Synonyms Habenaria sikkimensis Hook.f. 1890