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Necklace Orchid
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Necklace Orchid
P Native Photo: Subhasis Roy
Common name: Necklace Orchid, Rattlesnake Orchid • Malayalam: Pannamaravazha • Nepali: पत्थर केरा Patthar Kera, भालु केरा Bhaalu Kera
Botanical name: Coelogyne imbricata    Family: Orchidaceae (Orchid family)
Synonyms: Pholidota imbricata, Pholidota bracteata, Pholidota crotalina

Necklace Orchid is an orchid growing on trees, with crowded pseudobulbs and clustered roots. Pseudobulbs are 4-6 cm long, oblong-conical, tetragonous, with large deciduous sheathing scales. Leaves are 1-2 from the tip of pseudobulb, 14-25 x 3.2-5.5 cm, elliptic-inverted-lanceshaped, base narrowed, tip pointed or blunt, leathery, strongly 3-nerved. Racemes drooping, in leaf-axils, 20-27 cm long. Flowers are pinkish-white, hidden by overlapping leaf-like persistent bracts; bracts up to 6 x 5 mm, ovate-blunt. Sepals are subequal, to 7 x 5 mm, ovate, tip blunt or pointed, 3-nerved. Petals are up to 6 x 2.5 mm, linear-oblong. Lip to 8 x 8 mm, deeply saccate, sac longitudinally 3-ridged within, 3-lobed, mid-lobe bifid. Column round-ovate, winged. Anthers 2-loculed, pollinia 4. Capsule is ellipsoid, drooping. Necklace Orchid is found in the Himalayas, at altitudes of 600-2900 m, from Kumaun to Bhutan, Western Ghats, Ceylon, Burma, W. China, Malaysia, Australia. Flowering: July-September.
Medicinal uses: Pseudobulbs are eaten in rheumatic diseases, and are also believed to ve useful in flatulence and stomach disorders. The extract mixed with mustard oil is applied to swelling joints and is also considered useful in lumbago.

Identification credit: Siddarth Machado, Pankaj Kumar Photographed at Shillong, Meghalaya, Churachandpur distt, Manipur & Mangan, North Sikkim.

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