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Rosy Dwarf Seidenfaden Orchid
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Rosy Dwarf Seidenfaden Orchid
P Native Photo: S. Jeevith
Common name: Rosy Dwarf Seidenfaden Orchid, Rose Colored Seidenfadeniella
Botanical name: Seidenfadeniella rosea    Family: Orchidaceae (Orchid family)
Synonyms: Sarcanthus roseus, Schoenorchis roseus

The genus Seidenfadenia was named in honor of Dr. Gunnar Seidenfaden, a late 21st century authority on orchids from Denmark. The genus Seidenfadeniella looks like a smaller version of Seidenfadenia. Rosy Dwarf Seidenfaden Orchid is an orchid found hanging from trees, with simple, non-pseudobulbous, round stems; stems slender, 14-45 cm long, purple-spotted, bending downwards and often upwards at branch-ends. Internodes are 1.5-2 cm long; roots long, round or flattened, older roots covered by a scurfy greenish-grey tomentum. Leaves are 7-12.5 cm long, green, round, with a ventral groove, pointed, articulating with the petiolar sheaths which ensheath the internodes above. Flowers are yellow with orange veins, 3 mm broad, prominent by their saccate spurs, in short stalked, simple, dense-flowered, stout racemes measuring 3 cm in length. Floral bracts are 1.3 x 1.2 mm, ovate-tapering. Dorsal sepal 3.1-3.2 x 1.4 mm, oblong-lanceshaped, erect, blunt or rounded, 1-veined; lateral sepals 2.4 x 0.9-1.2 mm, obliquely subspoon-shaped, blunt, 1-veined. Petals are 2.4-2.8 x 2.2-2.4 mm, round, rounded toothed, rounded, 3-veined. Lip with a large, inflated spur, 3.6 x 1.9 mm, base of spur rounded; lateral lobes of lip erect and rounded; midlobe small, ovate, deflexed, subpointed; column 1.2 mm high, 1 mm broad with two erect, curved arms at the top lodging the large gland of the pollinia in between. Fruit is a spindle-shaped ribbed capsule, 7 mm long, with a flower-stalk as long. Rosy Dwarf Seidenfaden Orchid is endemic to Southern Western Ghats. Flowering: February-July,

Identification credit: S. Jeevith, P. Samydurai Photographed in the Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu.

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