!Pleione praecox (Lindl.) D. Don 1825
SECTION Dictyopleione
Photo by © David Llewelyn and the Kool Plants.co.uk Website
Photo by © Eric Hunt
Photo by © Pieter C. Brouwer and his Nature Photo Website
White Form conforms to P reichenbachiana
Photo by © Paul Cumbleton and the Alpine Garden Society Website
to 
Common Name The Early Blooming Pleione - In China You Qiao Du Suan Lan
Flower Size 2 1/2" to 4" [6 .5 cm to 10 cm]
Found in Yunnan province of China, India, Nepal, Vietnam, north Thailand and Myanmar where it grows in primary highland cloud forests on mossy trees and the rocks below them at altitudes of 1200 to 3400 meters This small sized, lithophytic and epiphytic, cool to cold growing species with shortly cylindrical, maroon pseudobulbs covered by greenish warts carrying 2 apical, narrowly elliptic-lanceolate, acute leaves and blooms on a basal, erect, 3 to 6" [7.5 to 15 cm] long inflorescence with 1 to sometimes 2, fragrant [of primrose] flowers and warty, basal sheaths that appears in the fall mostly on old, leafless psuedobulbs but occasionally with the leaves still present.
Synonyms Coelogyne birmanica Rchb.f. 1882; *Coelogyne praecox Lindl. 1821; Coelogyne praecox var. sanguinea Lindl. 1854; Coelogyne praecox var. tenera Rchb.f. 1883; Coelogyne praecox var. wallichiana (Lindl.) Lindl. 1854; Coelogyne reichenbachiana T. Moore 1868; Coelogyne wallichiana Lindl. 1830; Cymbidium praecox Sm. 1821; Dendrobium praecox J.E.Sm 1819; *Epidendrum praecox Sm. 1806; Pleione birmanica (Rchb.f.) B.S.Williams 1894; Pleione concolor hort. ex B.S. Williams 1894; Pleione praecox var. alba E.W.Cooper 1951; Pleione praecox var. candida Pfitzer 1907; Pleione praecox var. reichenbachiana (T.Moore & Veitch) Torelli & Riccab. 200; Pleione reichenbachiana (T. Moore) Kuntze 1891; Pleione wallichiana (Lindl.) Lindl. & Paxton 1851-2
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; The Orchids of Burma Grant 1895/95; The Orchids of Sikkim-Himalaya Part 1 King & Pantling 1898 as Coelogyne praecox drawing fide; The Orchids of North-Western Himalaya Vol IX Part II Duthie 1906 as Coelogyne praecox; Die Orchideen Schlechter 1915; Die Orchideen Schlechter 1915 as P reichenbachiana; Atlas des Orchidees Cultivees Constantin 1920 as P reichenbachiana drawing fide; Atlas des Orchidees Cultivees Constantin 1920 as P wallichiana drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 27 #9 1958 drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 28 #10 1959 photo fide; The Orchids of Thailand Seidenfaden & Smitinand 1959; AOS Bulletin Vol 32 No 3 1963 drawing good; The Orchids of Thailand Seidenfaden & Smitinand 1965 corrections drawing; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965 as P reichenbachiana; AOS Bulletin Vol 28 No 10 1966 photo; AOS Bulletin Vol 44 #5 1975 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 47 No 7 1978 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 47 No 10 1978 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 ok; 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; Wild Orchids of China Tsi, Chen Mori 1997; AOS Bulletin Vol 67 No 4 1998; Native Orchids of China in Colour Singchi, Zhanhuo and Yibo 1999 photo fide; Beautiful Orchids of Nepal Rajbhandari & Bhattarai 2001; Rudolf Schlechter Die Orchideen Band 1C lieferung 42 - 43 pg 2626 - 2762 Brieger 2001; A field Guide to the Wild Orchids of Thailand Vaddhanaphuti 2001 photo hmm; Orchids of Bhutan Pearce & Cribb 2002; Wild Orchids in Myanamar Vol 2 Tanaka 2004; A field Guide to the Wild Orchids of Thailand Vaddhanaphuti 2005 photo hmm; 100 Sikkim Himalayan Orchids Pradhan 2005 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 75 No 4 2006 drawing fide; Orchids of India A Glimpse Misra 2007 drawing ok; AOS Bulletin Vol 77 No 11 2008 photo fide; Native Orchids From Gaoligongshan Mountains, China Xiaohua, Xiaodong and Xiaochun 2009 photo fide; A Field Guide to the Orchids of China Singchi, Zhongjian, Yibo, Xiaohua and Zhanhuo 2009 photo fide; Flora of China Vol 25 Zhengyi, Raven & Deyuan 2009; The Wild Orchids in Yunnan Xu Xiang Ye & Liu 2010 photos ok; Orchid Digest Vol 78 #1 2014 photo fide; LANKESTERIANA 15(1): 7—50. Jeewan Singh Jalal & J. Jayanthi 2015; Orchid Digest Vol 81 #2 2017 photo fide; Orchid Digest Vol 82 #2 2018 Photo fide; Atlas of Native Orchids of China Vol 1 Jin Xiaohua, Li Jianwu and Ye Deping 2019 photo fide;
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