Pinalia globulifera - Globular Eria

Globular Eria is a tree-dwelling orchid, up to 25 cm high. Pseudobulbs are 2.5-6.5 x 1-1.5 cm, crowded, stacked in a row, narrow at base, somewhat club-shaped above, bilaterally compressed, with 3-5 internodes; shallowly grooved on maturity. Leaves are 3-5, usually 8-19 x 2.5-3.2 cm, arise from the apical part of pseudobulb, elliptic-lanceshaped, entire, tapering. Flower-racemes are 1-3, up to 4.5 cm long, curved to erect, spherical-ovate to cylindrical; axis erect, velvet-hairy, densely to somewhat-densely many-flowered. Floral bracts are creamy yellow, ovate, entire, pointed, reflexed. Flowers are 6-7 mm long, 3-4 mm wide, faintly fragrant, white, mid-lobe of lip yellow, tip of side-lobes sometimes purple tinged, column and anther uniformly white. Sepals are similar, almost equal, 3-5 x 2-3 mm, broadly ovate, entire, blunt, 3-5 veined; lateral sepals slightly sickle shaped, fused with the column-foot forming a shallow, round mentum. Petals are 3-3.5 x 1.2-1.8 mm, elliptic-lanceshaped, slightly sickle shaped, entire, blunt. Lip is 2.7-3 mm long, about 3 mm wide through side-lobes, continuous with the column-foot without any separating line between them, 3-lobed; side-lobes smaller, semicircular, placed on the lower half or middle of the lip blade; mid-lobe round to quadrate, nearly as long as broad at base. Column is about 1.5 mm erect. Anther rounded, 2-lobed; pollinia 8, in groups of 4-each, creamy-yellow, club-shaped, united at base by their caudicles. Globular Eria is seen growing on moss covered tree trunks in moist tropical and subtropical evergreen forests at altitudes of 500-1800 m, from Himalayas to Indo-China. Flowering: July-September.