Eria javanica - Java Eria

Java Eria is a medium sized, tree-dwelling or occasional rock-dwelling orchid with ovoid to laterally compressed, pear-shaped, basally sheathed pseudobulbs carrying 1 or 2, elliptic-lanceshaped, tapering, stalked leaves which are darker above than below. The plant blooms in the spring and summer on a branch-end, erect to drooping, up to 60 cm long and taller than the leaves, hairy stalked, raceme that is longer than the leaves. It has lanceshaped bracts, and many star like, sweetly fragrant flowers evenly distributed on all sides of the raceme arising from the nodes at the tip of a mature pseudobulb. Flowers are fragrant, white, sepals rusty velvet-hairy below; flower-stalk and ovary nearly as long as floral bracts, rusty velvet-hairy. Dorsal sepal is lanceshaped, 15-20 x about 4 mm, long tapering; lateral sepals sickle shaped-lanceshaped, 15-20 x 4-5 mm, long tapering. Petals are lanceshaped, 15-20 x about 4 mm, long tapering. Lip is ovate-lanceshaped in outline, about 14 x 7-8 mm, 3-lobed; lateral lobes suberect, oblong, 6-7 mm, blunt; mid-lobe oblong-lanceshaped, 7-8 x about 3 mm, tapering. Java Eria is found in NE India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Guinea, Philippines, Thailand, Yunnan, Taiwan, at altitudes of 300-1000 m. Flowering: August-October.