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Crawling Bulb-Leaf Orchid
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Crawling Bulb-Leaf Orchid
P Native Photo: Jambey Tsering
Common name: Crawling Bulb-Leaf Orchid
Botanical name: Bulbophyllum reptans    Family: Orchidaceae (Orchid family)
Synonyms: Bulbophyllum clarkei, Bulbophyllum grandiflorum, Phyllorkis reptans

Crawling Bulb-Leaf Orchid is a tree-dwelling as well as rock-dwelling orchid. Pseudo-bulbs are smooth and inverted-pear-shaped, small, less than 1.5 long, attached about 3 to 5 cm apart on very thin wiry, branching naked rhizomes. Leaf is single, linear-oblong, nearly pointed, obliquely notched at the tip, narrowed at the base to the very short leaf-stalk, 6 to 9 cm long and less than 2 cm in width. Flowering stems are shorter or longer than the leaves, sometimes in pairs, decurved, the flower-cluster-stalk sheathed at the base, bracteate, varying length, sometimes shorter in some cases longer than the laxly flowered raceme. Flowers are yellow with dark purple veins. The dark lines may sometimes be completely absent. Sepals are nearly equal, lanceshaped, 3 nerved, spreading, lateral one with dilated bases. Petals are smaller than the sepals, oblong, blunt, mid veined. Lip is about as long as the petals, stipitate, oblong, expanded and grooved at the base. Crawling Bulb-Leaf Orchid is found in NE India, Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal, Vietnam, China, at altitudes of 1000-2800 m. Flowering: January-October.

Identification credit: Pankaj Kumar, Jambey Tsering Photographed in Tale Wildlife Sanctuary & Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh.

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