Tainia purpureifolia Carr 1935
Photo by © Lamb
Collection sheet by © Carr
Common Name The Purple Leaved Tainia
Flower Size .8" [2 cm]
Found in northern and northwestern Borneo in moss and humus at elevations around 1250 to 1400 meters as a small sized, cool growing terrestrial with a shortly creeping, slender rhizome with .4" [1 cm] between each, acutely angled to the rhizome, cylindric pseudbulb enveloped entirely by a large, membraneous sheath that reaches to the apex of the petiole of the leaf carrying a single, apical, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, abruptly acuminate, acute, slightly rigid, margins very minutely and finely undulate, very dark green above, purple beneath, grooved petiolate base leaf that blooms in the late winter and early spring on an erect, basal, slender, peduncle terete, short tubular sheathed below, 2 longer ones above, 7.4" [18.5 cm] long, rachis to 1.8" [4.5 cm] long, very laxly 2 flowered inflorescence with adpressed to the pedicel, ovate, acute 5 nerved, lower one larger floral bracts and carrying tepals with 2 raised nerves on the back, yellow suffused purple down the middle, the lip white with a pale purplish tinge, purple in the upper half, suffused purple beneath along the middle and a white column with a large purple spot on the back apex.
Carr states that this species is close to T vegetissima from Malaysia but that species is larger, with a broadly obovate apiculate lip with 2 very short, thin lateral keels and obovate nerves.
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Lankester's Epidendra Website CR *Gard. Bull. Straits Settlem. 8: 199 Carr 1935; Die Orchideen Band 3 Sonderabdruck aus Schlechter Brieger, Maatsch and Senghas Liferung #14 820 - 880 1984; Orchid Monographs Vol 6 H Turner 1992 drawing/photo fide; The Plants of Mount Kinabalu Vol 2 Orchids Beaman, Wood, Beaman & Beaman 1993; Checklist of the Orchids of Borneo Wood & Cribb 1994; Orchids of Sarawak Beaman, Wood & Beaman etal 2001; The Orchids of Mount Kinabalu Vol 1 Wood, Beaman, Lamb, Chu Lun and Beaman 2011 drawing fide; Malesian Orchid Journal Vol 15 P.O'Byrne 2015;
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