FoI
Heart-Leaf Tainia
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Heart-Leaf Tainia
P Native Photo: Jambey Tsering
Common name: Heart-Leaf Tainia
Botanical name: Nephelaphyllum cordifolium    Family: Orchidaceae (Orchid family)
Synonyms: Cytheris cordifolia, Tainia cordifolia

Heart-Leaf Tainia is a small to medium sized, terrestrial orchid with a fleshy creeping rhizome giving rise to elongate pseudobulbs carrying a single, apical, ovate-heart-shaped, pointed, 5 veined, green mottled with purple, stalked base leaf. The plant blooms in the spring on a at branch-ends, erect, hairless, 9-11 cm long, laxly 3-6 flowered inflorescence with linear, falling off floral bracts. Flowers are large, sepals and petals brown with purplish brown stripes, lip lateral lobes white and spotted with purplish red, mid-lobe yellow, with purple spots along margin, lamellae yellow, column with purplish red spots. Flower-stalk and ovary 1.5-1.8 cm. Sepals are similar, lanceshaped, about 22 x 4-5 mm, 3-veined, tapering; lateral sepals adnate to column foot forming a broad mentum. Petals are lanceshaped, about 20 x 6-7 mm, 5-veined. Lip nearly ovate, 2.5-3 cm, slightly 3-lobed; lateral lobes nearly ovate; mid-lobe reflexed, triangular, tip pointed. Heart-Leaf Tainia is found in East Himalaya, Myanmar to China, at altitudes of 500-1500 m. Flowering: May-July.

Identification credit: Jambey Tsering Photographed in Khuppi, West Kameng, Arunachal Pradesh.

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