!Pleione humilis (Sm.) D. Don 1825 SECTION Humiles
Photo by © Pieter C. Brouwer and his Nature Photo Website
Photo by Dale Borders
to 
LATE
EARLY 
Common Name The Low Growing Pleione - In China Ai Xiao Du Suan Lan
Flower Size 2 to 4" [5 to 10 cm]
Found from the eastern Himalayas, Assam, Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim and Myanmar in cloud forests at elevations of 1100 to 3500 meters growing on moss or the smooth trunks of rhododendron trees as a small sized, cool to cold growing terrestrial or epiphyte with ovoid-conical pseudobulbs carrying a single, apical, deciduous, oblanceolate, subacute leaf that blooms in the late winter and early spring on a basal, 3 to 5" [7.5 to 12.5 cm] long, single flowered inflorescence enveloped by a green sheath with a slightly fragrant, color variable flower.
Synonyms Coelogyne humilis Lindl. 1821; Coelogyne humilis var. albata Rchb.f. 1888; Coelogyne humilis var. tricolor Rchb.f. 1880; Cymbidium humile Sm. ex Lindl. 1821; Dendrobium humile (Sm.) Sm. in A.Rees 1808; *Epidendrum humile Sm. 1806; Pleione diantha Schltr. 1915; Pleione humilis var. adnata Pfitzer 1907; Pleione humilis var. purpurascens Pfitzer 1907
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; The Orchids of Sikkim-Himalaya Part 1 King & Pantling 1898 as Coelogyne humilis drawing fide; Die Orchideen Schlechter 1915; Atlas des Orchidees Cultivees Constantin 1920 drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 28 No 10 1959 drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 32 No 3 1963 drawing fide; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965 drawing good; AOS Bulletin Vol 44 #5 1975 photo fide; Indian Orchids, Guide to Identification and Culture vol 2 Pradhan 1979 drawing/photo fide; Orchid Digest Vol 48 No 4 1984 photo fide; Rudolph Schlechter Die Orchideen Band 1B lieferung 16/17/18 945-1128 Brieger, Senghas 1985 photo good; The Genus Pleione Cribb & Butterfield 1988 drawing/photo fide; Orchids of Kumaun Himalayas Pangtey, Samant and Rawat 1991; The Manual Of Cultivated Orchid Species Bechtel, Cribb & Launert 1992 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 67 No 4 1998; Orchids of Bhutan Pearce & Cribb 2002; 100 Sikkim Himalayan Orchids Pradhan 2005 photo fide; Orchids of India A Glimpse Misra 2007; Flora of China Vol 25 Zhengyi, Raven & Deyuan 2009; LANKESTERIANA 15(1): 7—50. Jeewan Singh Jalal & J. Jayanthi 2015; AOS Bulletin Vol 85 #8 2016 photo fide; Atlas of Native Orchids of China Vol 1 Jin Xiaohua, Li Jianwu and Ye Deping 2019 photo fide;
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
