Zeuxine affinis - Grand Lawn Orchid

Grand Lawn Orchid is a newly identified terrestrial orchid from the Himalayas. It was named in honor of Dr. Gunnar Seidenfaden, a late 21st century authority on orchids from Denmark. Plant is 12-40 cm high. Plant is 12-40 cm long, prostrate at base, erect upwards. Leaves are 3-6, narrowly ovate-pointed, 4-6 cm long, 1-2 cm broad, stalk short, expanding to a broad stem clasping sheath, withered at the time of flowering. Flower racemes are carried on 4-12 cm long, usually shorter to almost equal to the length of the stem. Flower raceme is equal, shorter or longer than the stalk, 4-25 flowered. Flowers are 1.5-1.7 cm long. Bracts are ovate, long-pointed, 8-11 mm long, straw coloured with purple veins. Sepals are about 6-7 mm long, the dorsal ovate, laterals obliquely-lanceshaped, reddish-brown, 3-nerved. Petals are broadly spoon-shaped with lateral sides curved, white. Lip is 1-1.2 cm long, longer than the sepals, white basal sac provided with a single backward pointing triangular gland on each side, the middle narrowed with inrolled margins, apical portion with two obovate-spathulate lobules, each with a narrow base and broad rounded apex, not divergent, the sinus like an inverted ‘V’, forming an acute angle. Column at base adnate to the lip, with distinctly protruding obovate wings infront.